1913
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Leda Sleeping (Léda s'endort) is a 1913 ink by Paul-Albert Besnard, held at National Gallery of Art.
This image shows a woman lying down, her body curved and relaxed. Her hair is loose, and she rests on a bed of tangled lines that look like grass or reeds. The whole scene is drawn with scratchy, uneven marks, giving it a rough, almost sketchy feel. The artist used a technique where ink is scraped into a metal plate, then pressed onto paper—this is called etching. The lines are thick in some spots and fade out in others, making the image feel both soft and sharp at once. Next, look up technique: etching to see how this process works.
Paul-Albert Besnard (1849–1934) was a French artist, born in 7th arrondissement of Paris.
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