# Pauline Laurens

Pauline Laurens (27 May 1850 – 1 January 1941) was a French painter and printmaker. In 1873, aged 22, Laurens exhibited for the first time in the highly esteemed Salon de Paris. Her work was selected for exhibition in ten subsequent Salons. Laurens was married to Gustave Besnard, an officer who served the French Navy for 50 years and was Navy Minister between 1895 and 1898. Her paintings were described by art critic Eugène-Henri Le Brun-Dalbanne in 1875 as close to paintings by Antoine Watteau and Jean-Baptiste Greuze.

## Biography

Born in Paris in 1850 in an upper-middle-class family, Laurens grew up in a family environment that viewed art and painting as key to a young girl's education. Since women could not yet attend the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Laurens studied painting with Charles Joshua Chaplin (1825–1891), a highly regarded teacher known for his elegant portraits of young women. During the Belle Époque, Chaplin conducted art classes specifically for women at his studio (23 rue de Lisbonne in Paris). Laurens’classmates included Mary Cassatt, Henriette Browne, Louise Abbéma, Madeleine Lemaire, Eva Gonzalès. Laurens also studied engraving with Charles Albert Waltner (1846–1925), known for his ability to render large color 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 important event in French artistic life. Having a painting or an engraving in it gave the artists prestige and visibility. Not surprisingly, the presence of female artists at the Salon was significantly minor compared to their male fellows.
In the years 1875–1880, Pauline Laurens was a popular portrait painter in the high society of the Third Republic.
Between 1875 and 1880, she also produced a number of prints using the etching technique. She received an award for her engravings at the 1877 Paris Salon.
In 1880, Pauline Laurens visited Italy (Florence, Rome, the Vatican, Naples). She admired and copied masterpieces in churches and palaces.
In 1881, she married Gustave Besnard, who was a Navy Captain at the time. Besnard was subsequently promoted to Vice Admiral in 1892, and served as Ministre de la Marine, the French equivalent of First Lord of the Admiralty, between 1895 and 1898. They had eight children, four girls and four boys.
After her marriage in 1881, Pauline Laurens, in order to be in line with the social conventions of the time, gave up selling her paintings and etchings. It was simply unthinkable for a Navy officer's wife to have a profession at the Belle Époque. But Laurens continued to paint portraits of those close to her.
In the 1880s and 1890s, Pauline Laurens painted portraits of her children, signing them with her maiden name as a way of expressing her independence. These portraits testify to Laurens's virtuosity in capturing on canvas the features of young models, always quick to get restless.

## Public collections

Troyes Art Museum (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Troyes): Rosette and Dick (1875), oil on canvas, inventory number 875.6, Joconde database reference 000PE033148.
British Museum: Portrait of Mr. Chaplin, after a painting by Gustave Ricard, etching, inventory number 1880.0214.1966.
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Poverella!, after a painting by Pauline Laurens, etching inventory number 1985-52-17906
Petit Palais (musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris): Woman Playing Guitar, after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching, inventory number PPG15897.
Petit Palais (musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris): Young Girl Writing, after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching, inventory number PPG15908.
Petit Palais (musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris) : Portrait of a Girl in a Medallion, after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching, inventory number PPG1591(1).
Petit Palais (musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris): Portrait of a Woman, after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching, inventory number PPG1591(2).
Petit Palais (musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris): Mother and Child, after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching, inventory number PPG1592(2).
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: Portrait of Mr. Chaplin, after a painting by Gustave Ricard, etching, inventory number 1963.30.22985.
Musée Gassendi, Digne-les-Bains: Poverella!, after a painting by Pauline Laurens, etching.

## Private collections
### Paintings

Young Girl Distracted from Her Lesson (Une distraction), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1873 Paris Salon under number 882.
Poverella!, oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1874 Paris Salon under number 1102.
Young Woman Playing Mandolin (1875), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1875 Paris Salon under number 1257.
Béatrix (1875), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1875 Paris Salon under number 1258.
Self-portrait (1875), oil on canvas.
Betsy, the Shopkeeper (1876), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1876 Paris Salon under number 1211.
Madame L. (1877), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1877 Paris Salon under number 1232.
Child with Red Bow (1877), oil on canvas.
Mademoiselle M. B. (1878), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1878 Paris Salon under number 1338.
Une page attachante (1879), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1879 Paris Salon under number 1795.
Rêverie (1879), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1879 Paris Salon under number 1796.
Müngyn (1880), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1880 Paris Salon under number 2156.
Mademoiselle Marguerite B. (1880), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1880 Paris Salon under number 2157.
Woman Reading a Letter (circa 1880), oil on canvas.
Madame Boullaire, Sister of the Artist (1881), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1881 Paris Salon under number 1347.
Étienne-Barthélemy Bagnoud, Bishop of Bethlehem (Portrait de Monseigneur Bagnoud, évêque de Bethléem), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1881 Paris Salon under number 1348.
Mademoiselle Jeanne T. (1882), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1882 Paris Salon under number 1563.
Portrait of Navy Captain Gustave Besnard (1883), oil on canvas, exhibited at the 1884 Paris Salon under number 1426.
Jean Besnard, the Artist's Son (1890), oil on canvas.
Yvonne Besnard, the Artist's Daughter (1890), oil on canvas.
Jeanne Besnard, the Artist's Daughter (1891), oil on canvas.
Jacques Besnard, the Artist's Son (1891), oil on canvas.
Hélène Besnard, the Artist's Daughter (1891), oil on canvas.

### Etchings

Source:.
Young Girl, after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching exhibited at the 1875 Paris Salon under number 3726.
Colombine, after a painting by Madeleine Lemaire, etching exhibited at the 1875 Paris Salon under number 3726.
An Old Woman, after L. Hugo, etching, circa 1875.
Poverella!, after a painting by Pauline Laurens, etching exhibited at the 1875 Paris Salon under number 3726.
Woman Playing Guitar, after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching exhibited at the 1876 Paris Salon under number 3893.
Madame Boullaire, Sister of the Artist, after a painting by Amaury-Duval, etching exhibited at the 1876 Paris Salon under number 3894.
The Study, after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching exhibited at the 1877 Paris Salon under number 4454.
A School in Cairo, after a painting by Henriette Browne, etching exhibited at the 1877 Paris Salon under number 4455.
Mademoiselle de B., after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching exhibited at the 1878 Paris Salon under number 4854.
Mademoiselle de G., after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching exhibited at the 1878 Paris Salon under number 4855.
Portrait of Mr. Chaplin, after a painting by Gustave Ricard, etching exhibited at the 1879 Paris Salon under number 5712.
Madame la Vicomtesse de C., after a painting by Charles Chaplin, etching exhibited at the 1880 Paris Salon under number 7058.

### Reception

In 1875, Eugène-Henri Le Brun-Dalbanne, curator of the Musée de Peinture de Troyes between 1871 and 1880, analyzes and evaluates the painting Rosette and Dick: “To remind us of Watteau, to awaken memories of Greuze, by recalling Chaplin, and yet to remain oneself, is no small talent. Mademoiselle Pauline Laurens displays the best of her talent in her lovely painting entitled: Rosette and Dick. [...] Mademoiselle Pauline Laurens, who draws and paints with great skill, no longer counts her successes. Admitted to all the Salons to which she presented her works, she is bound to join the elite group of those sensitive, intelligent, gifted women artists who prove that art is not a vain amusement for them.”
In Les femmes artistes au Salon de 1878 et à l'Exposition universelle, Anatole Alès (using the pseudonym Jean Alesson) writes about the Portrait of Mademoiselle M. B. exhibited at the 1878 Paris Salon: “Among the latest child portraits, we would like to mention the portrait by Pauline Laurens of a young girl in gray velvet with a pomegranate-red bow. The child, holding a hoop, is motionless only out of obedience. Life has not abandoned her. It is a beautiful painting, very distinguished” (page 14).
In his Dictionnaire Véron, Théodore Véron writes about the painting Une page attachante exhibited at the 1879 Paris Salon : “This charming young chatelaine lowers her pretty head, wearing a straw hat adorned with poppies. She reads with an air of modesty. It is as graceful and poetic as a painting by Chaplin”. Then, about the portrait Rêverie exhibited at the same Salon in 1879: “La Rêverie is a very pretty person, who is really dreaming. Oh, how beautiful she really is! It is so poetic and artistic, mademoiselle! In truth, you successfully compete with Mrs. Browne and Mr. Chaplin! With a little effort, you are on your way to great rewards. You are a poet, mademoiselle!”.