[4][a] At this time sculpture was considered a less noble art than painting, a rough and dirty trade akin to artisan stonecutting, that generally required a public or private sponsor to cover the cost.

[9] The young couple made their first home in London, where Charlotte had introductions to the English aristocracy and gained some success.

Charlotte gave sculpture lessons to her son Philippe Besnard, who then went to Rome and studied under Henri Bouchard (1875–1960).

[9] Charlotte did much to support and encourage her husband in his career, often acting as his secretary in handling correspondence on his behalf, arranging social engagements and dealing with exhibitions and potential purchasers.

[12] Charlotte became interested in the teaching of art, and achieved a reform in the way that drawing was taught, abandoning the "geometric method" in favour of freer and more spontaneous processes.

[12] From 1913 to 1921 her husband was Director of the French Academy in Rome, and Charlotte acted as a mother or chaperone to the girls at the Villa Medici.

A high relief of Cérès was exhibited at the Objets d’Art section of the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1892.

An article on the Besnard couple by Frantz Jourdain appeared in La Vie heureuse in 1904, with photographs showing this statue.

[11] Charlotte Besnard designed an unusual portrait for the tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery of the Belgian poet Georges Rodenbach (1855–98).

[18] In the 1900s she began to experiment with combinations of terracotta, paste, wax, plaster and paint on statuettes of women, symbolic rather than realistic.

[19] A June 1877 review of the Royal Academy Exhibition said "Miss Charlotte Dubray shows much decision of handling in a terra-cotta portraiture of 'Professor Birkbeck' ... and equal grace and fancy in 'La Coquette'.