Albert Besnard (France, 1849 - 1934) Etching of a woman. Pencil signed in lower margin. Image size: 5 x 5 inches. In 1913, Besnard was appointed to be the director of Villa Medici in Rome; in 1922, he became the director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1924, he became the first painter since 1760 to be elected as a member of the Acad?mie Fran?aise, one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of the French intellectual world.