Robert Besnard (1881–1914), Little B of Villerville

From the Minneapolis Institute of Art record

Young Robert, nicknamed Le Bi (Little B) by his mother, is shown at age three carrying a folder of papers in a park. People describing this print often mistake him for a girl because he wears a dress. However, boys at that time commonly wore dresses at least until they were toilet trained. (The dress eased both diaper changing and toilet training.) Robert’s short haircut and bangs firmly identify him as a boy. His plump cheeks, his defining characteristic, are gravity-defying as only a toddler’s can be. The inscription pinpoints the setting as Villerville, a coastal village in Normandy, where the family spent much of the summer of 1884. France, Europe