Madame Aman Jean
1898
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
1898
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Madame Aman Jean is a 1898 ink by Paul-Albert Besnard, a Impressionism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This is a close-up portrait of a woman framed in a circle. She wears a wide-brimmed hat with a dense, web-like pattern that fills most of the image. Her face is half-lit, with one hand resting under her chin. The lines are dark and scratchy, giving it a textured, almost sketchy look. The hat’s pattern looks like it was drawn with tiny, repeated strokes—maybe a way to show light catching fabric. This is an etching, which means the artist scratched into a metal plate to create the lines. Check out etching to see how artists use acid and ink to make prints like this.
