Pauline Laurens
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Pauline Laurens (27 May 1850 – 1 January 1941) was a French painter and printmaker. In 1873, at the age of 22, Laurens exhibited for the first time at the highly esteemed Salon de Paris. Her work was selected for display in ten subsequent Salons.[1] Laurens was married to Gustave Besnard, a naval officer who served in the French Navy for 50 years and held the position of Navy Minister from 1895 to 1898. In 1875, art critic Eugène-Henri Le Brun-Dalbanne described her paintings as reminiscent of the work of Antoine Watteau and Jean-Baptiste Greuze.[2]
Born in Paris in 1850[3] into an upper middle-class family, Pauline Laurens grew up in an environment that regarded art and painting as essential components of a young girl's education. Because women were not yet allowed to attend the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Laurens studied painting with Charles Chaplin (1825–1891), a highly regarded teacher known for his refined portraits of young women. During the Belle Époque, Chaplin offered art classes exclusively for women at his studio at 23 rue de Lisbonne in Paris. Laurens’classmates included Mary Cassatt, Henriette Browne, Louise Abbéma, Madeleine Lemaire, and Eva Gonzalès. Laurens also studied engraving with Charles Albert Waltner (1846–1925), celebrated for his skill in translating large color oil paintings by Rembrandt, Thomas Gainsborough and Eugène Delacroix into etchings.
Laurens exhibited annually at the Paris Salon de peinture et de sculpture between 1873 and 1884. During the Belle Époque, the Paris Salon was the most prestigious venue in French artistic life. Having a painting or engraving accepted conferred considerable visibility and status.[4] Unsurprisingly, the ratio of female artists accepted at the Salon remained significantly lower than that of men. From 1871 to 1885, women made up 10 to 15% of the exhibitors, while men made up 85 to 90%.
In the years 1875–1880, Pauline Laurens was a sought-after portrait painter among the high society of the Third Republic. During the same period, she also produced numerous etchings[5] and received an award for her engravings at the 1877 Paris Salon.[6]
Laurens made several trips to Italy in 1875, 1878, and 1880, where she studied and copied masterpieces in churches and palaces in Florence, Venice, Rome, the Vatican, and Naples.
In 1881, she married Gustave Besnard, then a Navy Captain. Besnard was later promoted to Vice Admiral in 1892 and served as Ministre de la Marine, the French equivalent of First Lord of the Admiralty, from 1895 to 1898. The couple had eight children: four daughters and four sons.
After her marriage in 1881, Pauline Laurens -conforming to the social conventions of the time- ceased selling her paintings and etchings. During the Belle Époque, it was considered unacceptable for the wife of a naval officer to maintain a professional artistic career. Nevertheless, Laurens continued to paint, producing portraits of family members and close acquaintances.
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Pauline Laurens painted numerous portraits of her children, signing them with her maiden name as an expression of personal independence. These portraits demonstrate her remarkable skill in capturing the features and lively presence of young sitters - subjects known for their restlessness.
