Paul-emile Becat (1885 - 1960) — Reclining Nude

Reclining Nude
Oil on canvas, signed lower left.
33 x 55 cm

Paul-Émile Bécat: Elegance in Drypoint

Born on February 2, 1885 in Paris, Paul-Émile Bécat entered the École des Beaux-Arts where he was trained by Gabriel Ferrier and François Flameng. From 1913, he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, where he quickly distinguished himself with his portraits of writers, demonstrating a precocious talent for drawing and precise lines. Awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome in 1920, he enriched his career with major academic recognition. His travels in Africa—particularly to Congo, Gabon, and Sudan—made him a notable figure of "Africanism" within the Colonial Society of French Artists, where he won the prizes for French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa. From 1933, Paul-Émile Bécat turned to the technique of drypoint, which he used to elegantly illustrate erotic and gallant texts. This art of fine, expressive, and delicate lines became his signature, notably through high-quality limited editions. At the same time, he illustrated around a hundred works: works by Pierre Louÿs (Aphrodite), Pierre l'Arétin (Ragionamenti), Brantôme (Vie des dames galantes), Choderlos de Laclos (Les Liaisons dangereuses), Verlaine (Poèmes d'amour, Fêtes galantes), Voltaire (Le Taureau blanc) and René Boylesve (Les Bains de Bade), always with elegance and sensuality. Permanently established in intellectual and artistic circles, he shared his life with Marie Monnier, an embroidery artist, and became the brother-in-law of Adrienne Monnier, a famous bookseller-publisher at the heart of Parisian literary life. Recognized for his artistic and literary work, Bécat left a lasting mark with his elegant engravings, his virtuoso style, and his delicate gaze on femininity and intimacy in music halls and in the intimacy of art books. He died on January 1, 1960, in Paris, concluding a career at the crossroads of academic classicism and refined graphic eroticism.