Paul Albert BESNARD - A View of Rooftops in Rome at Sunset, with the Monument to King Victor Emanuel II of Savoy

Medium	Watercolour
Dimensions	23 x 14.5 cm (9 x 5³/₄ inches)
Gallery	Stephen Ongpin Fine Art

Description
Technical

Albert Besnard is much less well known as a watercolourist than as a painter and muralist. The present sheet may be dated to the period of Besnard’s second stay in Rome, between 1913 and 1921, when he served as the director of the Académie de France at the Villa Medici. This view over the rooftops of Rome appears to be from the Villa Medici itself, looking due south. Prominent in the left background is the national monument dedicated to the first Italian King, Vittorio Emanuele II, which was constructed between 1885 and 1935.

Medium: Watercolour
Dimensions: 23 x 14.5 cm (9 x 5³/₄ inches)
Provenance: The studio of the artist, Paris
Galerie Paul Prouté, Paris, with the gallery’s Besnard sale stamp (Lugt 5552) on the verso
Matthew Rutenberg, New York.

Exhibitions: Possibly Paris, Galerie Paul Prouté S.A., Dessins originaux anciens, Dessins originaux modernes - XIXeet XXe siècles, Spring 1978, no.281 (Vision. A la Villa Medicis, composition de ciel et d’ombre. Aquarelle. 145 x 230., priced at 600 francs).
Categories: Paintings, Drawings & Prints