Two Studies of Women

This drawing was given by the artist as a token of his friendship with the Belgian writer Pierre Louÿs, to whom it is inscribed. Louÿs met Besnard for the first time as a young boy on 17 April 1888, as he records in his Journal Intime (Paris 1929, p. 215), and became a longstanding admirer of his work. Besnard and Louÿs collaborated on several occasions, with Besnard providing illustrations for Louÿs' published work, including the frontispiece for a limited edition of Astarte, his first collection of erotic poems published in 1892. Louÿs dedicated his first novel, Aphrodite, to Besnard in 1896. Louÿs' work frequently dealt with the theme of lesbian love. His pseudotranslation of a supposedly Sapphic Greek poem cycle The Songs of Bilitis, soon revealed to be his own work, later achieved a cult status in the lesbian community in the twentieth century. The graceful female figures depicted by Besnard here may have been considered an appropriate gift to a writer frequently concerned with erotic themes. [RR 2025]