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Albert BESNARD • Madeleine Gorges, dite Fillette feuilletant un livre

Albert Besnard was one of the most celebrated painters of the Belle Époque. A member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1912, director of the Villa Médicis from 1913 to 1921, admitted to the Académie française in 1924, director of the École des Beaux-Arts from 1922 to 1932, he was the first painter to be honoured with a state funeral by the Republic. All too soon forgotten, posterity unjustly relegated him to the shelf of academic artists. A champion of feminine beauty, often depicted in intimate scenes, Besnard was also a virtuoso portraitist, whose paintings, such as this little girl reading, demonstrate, beyond their model, a true universality. This work illustrates the promising beginnings of the painter, who was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome in 1874.

Reynaldo Hahn’s bridge table

Marcel Proust met Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947) on 22 May 1894, in the prestigious salon of Madeleine Lemaire (1845-1928), one of Madame Verdurin's inspirations in ‘In Search of Lost Time’. The musician became one of her greatest loves.

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