William-adolphe bouguereau biography of williams
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Degas and his associates used the term "Bougeuereaute" in a derogatory manner to describe any artistic style reliant on "slick and artificial surfaces". The model's fingers and toes are tinged with pink, a nod to the description of daybreak in Homer's Odyssey as "rosy-fingered dawn, the child of morning".
Diaphanous drapery swirls around her, while her suspension in the air, and mirrored reflection, generate a supernatural effect. He remains one of the most important figures in the Académie's revivalist tradition and 19th century academic painting.
In the years after his death, Bouguereau's reputation faded as modern art firmly took hold.
At twelve, he was sent to live with his uncle, a Catholic priest, possibly to prepare the boy for a career in the Church. Academic painting placed the highest status on historical and mythological subjects and Bouguereau won the coveted Prix de Rome at age 26 in 1850, with his Zenobia Found by Shepherds on the Banks of the Araxes.
I do not see the way they see, or claim to see". Major exhibitions have been mounted celebrating his technical brilliance, and his paintings now command staggering prices at auction, cementing his status as the consummate academic painter of the 19th century. But again, his mastery of naturalistic figure painting cannot be questioned.
During this period Bouguereau's influence spread well beyond France, and he became active in artists' societies in Belgium, Austria, and Spain. He had a passion for mentoring young artists at the Académie Julian, for example, and, unlike his contemporaries, enthusiastically encouraged the training of women artists.
Oil on canvas - The Detroit Institute of Arts
1885
The Young Shepherdess
In Bouguereau's 1885 painting The Young Shepherdess, a girl stands alone at the forefront of an expansive pasture, turning her body to face it with an air of propriety: suitably enough, as the title indicates her responsibility for the flock of sheep it contains.
Shortly after Nelly's death, however, Bouguereau began a relationship with another model, the American Elizabeth Jane Gardner - also a notable artist - whom he would marry in 1896, following a two-decade engagement (the couple were waiting for the death of William-Adolphe's mother, who disapproved of his remarrying). More generally, the rise of avant-garde trends across the second half of the 19th century established a new paradigm whereby artists defined themselves against the Neoclassical standards of the Academy, meaning that Bouguereau's Academy-approved work was scorned by many of the most famous artists of the generation after him.
In 1984, the Borghi Gallery hosted the commercial show of his 23 oil paintings and 1 drawing.
Bouguereau returned to the marketable motif of the female nude throughout his career, arranging the body in various evocative and illustrative poses, often alluding to myth or literary history. Despite falling out of favor after his death as artistic tastes shifted, Bouguereau has undergone a major revival in recent decades, with his paintings now selling for millions and his place as a preeminent 19th century academic artist firmly reestablished.
Early Life and Training
William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born on November 30, 1825 in La Rochelle, France.
In his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body.
This work is a good example of Bouguereau's erotically-charged classical and mythological tableaux, which sold particularly well with a new market of super-rich buyers in the United States, but which were often the subject of scorn from his Impressionist contemporaries.
Contemporary correspondence reveals the artist's overwhelming grief at the death, that also seemed to have moved him to create a number of monumental religious works, this one being the most affecting.
Towards the end of his career, Bouguereau painted many rustic genre scenes that proved immensely popular with collectors, including various works on the "shepherdess" theme.
He excelled in this mercenary work, eventually saving enough to move to Paris, which he did in 1846, at the age of 20.
Following a recommendation from the Municipal School in Bordeaux, Bouguereau was invited to study under the accomplished Neoclassical painter François-Édouard Picot. He also studied classical literature, which influenced his subject choice for the rest of his career.
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In the same year a major exhibition was organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in Canada.