A male and French - an artist (5)
I believe the answer is:
manet
'an artist' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a male and french' is the wordplay.
'a male' becomes 'man' (man is a kind of male**).
'and french' becomes 'et' ('and' in the French language).
'man'+'et'='MANET'
(Other definitions for manet that I've seen before include "Olympia painter" , "artistic individual" , "Painter of Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe, d. 1883" , "Edouard - - (painter)" , "French painter" .)