Musician (musicienne) 1900

Editor: Paul-Albert Besnard's "Musician," created around 1900, strikes me as an ink drawing that also has the qualities of a print, an etching perhaps. It evokes a sense of melancholic introspection. I see a figure beside what looks like the grim reaper playing the harp, circled by birds of prey. It's really moody! What do you see in this piece, from your perspective? Curator: What I see is the dance between beauty and mortality. The flowing lines suggest a musicality, right? But it's offset by the skeletal figure. I get the impression that Besnard wants us to consider our own relationship with not only mortality but time as well. The Symbolist movement sought deeper meaning and emotion; the reaper could be a vision or hallucination while listening to such forlorn sounds from a plucked instrument. Notice how the woman is slumped with her head on her hand: how much is reality and how much is a dream here? Does the artist offer a judgement, or simply open the space to consider one's fleeting nature on this planet? Editor: That's interesting – the idea of the artist presenting it more as a question than an answer. I had thought the birds looked scary. Curator: They could signify anxiety or an ominous omen, or even movement towards the heavens. Given this piece and the era it comes from, what feelings come to mind when considering "fin de siecle"? Editor: Oh right, end of the century, a sense of change or ending. So, like, not just death as the end, but the close of an era too, maybe? This feels even heavier now. Curator: It's almost like the music is a lament, a sigh for what’s passing, or, dare I say, the angst about industrial change. What have you come to understand in your encounter with Besnard’s work? Editor: That it's deeper and less straightforward than it initially appears. Also that it shows just how much symbolism packs meaning into even a small drawing like this one!