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William Bouguereau French Academic Classical painter, frescoist, draftsman & teacher born 1825 - died 1905 Born in: La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France). Died in: La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France). |
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Biographical Information Excerpt from the Biography of William Bouguereau, by Damien Bartoli: "William Bouguereau is unquestionably one of history's greatest artistic geniuses. Yet in the past century, his reputation and unparalleled accomplishments have undergone a libelous, dishonest, relentless and systematic assault of immense proportions. His name was stricken from most history texts and when included it was only to blindly, degrade and disparage him and his work. Yet, as we shall see, it was he who single handedly opened the French academies to women, and it was he who was arguably the greatest painter of the human figure in all of art history. His figures come to life like no previous artist has ever before or ever since achieved. He wasn’t just the best ever at painting human anatomy, more importantly he captured the tender and subtlest nuances of personality and mood. Bouguereau caught the very souls and spirits of his subjects much like Rembrandt. Rembrandt is said to have captured the soul of age. Bouguereau captured the soul of youth. Considering his consummate level of skill and craft, and the fact that the great preponderance of his works are life-size, it is one of the largest bodies of work ever produced by any artist. Add to that the fact that fully half of these paintings are great masterpieces, and we have the picture of an artist who belongs like Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Carravaggio, in the top ranks of only a handful of masters in the entire history of western art. Having died in 1905, we can suppose it best that he was not here to see the successful assault on traditional art that turned the art world inside out and upside down in the decades that followed his death. His fate was to be much like that of Rembrandt, whose work was also ridiculed and banished from museums and official art circles for the hundred years following his death. Rembrandt’s reputation wasn’t resuscitated until the 1790’s (he died in 1669) due to the influence of the founder of the Royal Academy in London, Sir Joshua Reynolds. Even as recently as 1910, Reynolds paintings brought higher prices at auction than Rembrandt. Bouguereau’s re-appreciation can rather accurately be traced from about 1979 when his prices at auction quadrupled that year alone, and then was further catapulted by the 1984 retrospective that traveled from the Petite Palais in Paris, to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada and finally to the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford. In 1980 The Metropolitan Museum in New York permanently hung two of his works that been left in storage from early in the century. Since 1960, his values in the market place have literally exploded, doubling on average every 3.5 years. From works selling for and average $500 to $1500 in 1960, they have accelerated to where in the last three years alone his auction records have been repeatedly broken another 4 times. In 1998 The Heart's Awakening sold for $1,410,000 at Christie’s New York. In 1999 Cupid et Psyche, Enfants sold for $1,760,000 also at Christie’s to be surpassed the very next day at Sotheby’s when Alma Perens owned by Sylvester Stalone sold for $2,650,00. That record only lasted one year until May of 2000, when Charite sold $3,520,000 back at Christie’s. Over the last 20 years his paintings all over the world have been taken out of their crates, basements, storage rooms and attics, dusted off, many cleaned and expertly restored, and today over a hundred museums and institutions proudly have his works on permanent exhibit. Reproductions of his paintings are selling by the millions in poster shops and gift stores world wide, and there is much evidence that they are even outselling the reproductions of paintings by any of the most famous modernists. The definitive full catalog Raissonee on his life and work is being completed my Damien Bartoli and the Bouguereau Committee and after 25 years of work will be published in 2003 or 2004 in time to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of his death in 2005. Since Bouguereau is one of the most important artists in history, we will be regularly adding additional images by him to this site. Besides Mr. Bartoli’s excellent biography below, you can read more about him in the ARC Philosophy." We wish to express our gratitude to Damien Bartoli for his help in cataloging the paintings in this gallery. Further Reading: | |
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Translated title: Young Shepherdess Standing. 1887 Oil on canvas 62 x 28 7/8 inches (157.5 x 73.5 cm) Private collection, USA Added 8/27/2001 "A young shepherdess stands challenging the viewer, staff in hand. Bouguereau used a play on words when naming this painting, for the shepherdess is not only standing up, but also standing her ground, made evident by her bold and confident look. When the title is read in its original French form, it reads Jeune Bergere Debout. The use of 'debout' adds an additional play on words to the meaning, as it is very similar to the word 'debut', meaning a first prominent public appearance. In the late 1800's the word was commonly associated with the debut of a debutant. Bouguereau is saying that the shepherdess is just as good as any debutant, and is once again elevating the lower class to that of the aristocracy." -- by Fred Ross |  | |||
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Translated title: Little Thieves. 1872 Oil on canvas 78 7/8 x 42 7/8 inches (200.5 x 109 cm) Private collection Added 8/27/2001 "In this tender piece two sisters are escaping with a basket of stolen apples. The older sister is gently helping the younger off of a wall. One gets the sense when looking at this piece that the two girls have done this many times before, causing the love, companionship, and sense of shared mischief to be clearly and tenderly captured. This work is a great example of Bouguereau’s amazing sense of composition. Both sisters are centered with the space between them being in the almost exact center of the canvas; the younger sister’s knee countering the older sisters head. The green foliage hanging off the left side of the wall perfectly offsets the bush in the lower right; and the apples in the lower left are countered by the light area in the upper right. Even the wall is balanced with the bricks peaking through the wall to the lower left and the grass poking through on the upper right. Bouguereau painted another image of a young thief 28 years later called Little Thief which is an image of a young girl sitting on a wall, holding a single pear and smiling mischievously." -- by Kara Ross | 
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Translated title: Charity. 1878 Oil on canvas 77 1/8 x 46 inches (196 x 117 cm) Private collection Added 8/27/2001 "Charity currently holds the world record for a Bouguereau painting sold at auction selling in the summer of 2000 for 3,600,000 US dollars. The painting depicts a beautiful woman caring and protecting five young children giving them her nurturing, sustenance, and knowledge. The nurturing is represented by her bared breasts indicating her intent to allow the children to nurse from her, and illustrating her willingness to give of herself for their well being. Under her left foot is an overturned jug with gold and silver coins flowing out of it. This symbol reveals that there is no cost too great for their happiness, and that she is willing spend what ever money it takes to ensure it, even if it’s everything that she has. By her right foot a boy is leaning on a pile of books, showing her intent to educate them and give them the gift of knowledge. Charity is a truly exquisite painting using symbolic imagery to portray the true meaning of selflessness and of course charity." -- by Kara Ross | 
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Translated title: Young Gypsies. 1879 Oil on canvas 65 1/4 x 38 7/8 inches (166 x 99 cm) Collection of Fred and Sherry Ross, USA Signed and dated lower left Added 8/27/2001 "Bouguereau loved to exalt the poor. A gypsy mother, holding her young child in her arms, stands on an elevated plane with a backdrop of nearly only sky. They stand so high in fact, that in the distance the ocean can be seen all the way to the horizon, symbolizing that even though the gypsies’ social status is low, they have just as much right to stand as tall and as proud. The figures both look down on the viewer, further emphasizing their elevated state. The dignity of the lower classes was a favorite theme of Bouguereau's that he depicted in many of his works. The mother and child are both beautiful showing that there modest clothing has no impact on their beauty." -- by Kara Ross "Modernist ideologues love to say that Bouguereau was irrelevant to his times because he wasn’t one of the impressionists who were carving out the path to abstract expressionism. Nothing could be further from the truth. A child of the recent French and American Revolution, Bouguereau along with many artists and writers of the day, believed in the breakthroughs of Enlightenment thought: Democracy, the Rights of men, “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”. Not only wasn’t it true that he was irrelevant, but nothing could have been more relevant, than works like this that ennobled and elevated ordinary people and peasants. And what better way then to take the lowest of the low in society, the Gypsies, and to raise them to the heavens? They are both beautiful without being overly pretty; 'real' and 'ideal' at the same time." -- by Fred Ross | 
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Translated title: Portrait of Gabrielle Cot. 1890 Oil on canvas 17 7/8 x 14 7/8 inches (45.5 x 38 cm) Collection of Fred and Sherry Ross, USA Added 10/1/2001 Note by ARC Chairman, Fred Ross: This magnificent portrait has been judged by a number of top experts and master artists, to be one of the greatest portrait heads ever painted ... by any artist ... ever. Gabriel Cot was the daughter of Bouguereau’s most famous student, Pierre August Cot. Bouguereau was planning to use her for one of his major paintings, and so he started this as a study for that painting, but, as he worked, he was so captivated by Gabriel’s beauty, including her intense inner beauty, that he finished it as one of his only un-commissioned portraits. I know of no other work that better exemplifies how this master captured the subtle nuances of personality and mood. | 
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Translated title: The Horseback Ride. 1884 Oil on canvas 39 7/8 x 53 7/8 inches (101.5 x 137 cm) Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA Signed and dated lower right Added 8/27/2001 The Horseback Ride is truly a painting about the joys of childhood, and is yet another one of Bouguereau’s celebrations of life. Two girls play amidst the beauty of nature one on the others back. Both children are dressed in peasants clothing, showing that despite their lack of money and social status, they still can, and are experiencing great joy in their lives. This image is also an expression of friendship. The one girl is willing to support the other, and her smile indicates the willingness and joy she takes in the task. The girl on top, though perhaps a bit nervous, trusts in the other not to drop her. There is also a slightly removed quality to the young rider. Even though she is supposed to be enjoying the game her expression shows that perhaps there is not as much joy in it as there once was. This could indicate that she is growing up and leaving her childhood behind her. Bouguereau could be saying to enjoy our childhood while it lasts, because as the young rider is learning, it is indeed very short. (See: Edge of the River.) -- by Kara Ross |  | |||
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Translated title: The Virgin with Angels. Alternative title: The Song of the Angels. 1881 Oil on canvas 84 x 60 inches (213.4 x 152.4 cm) Museum at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Glendale, California, USA Added 9/14/2002 | 
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Translated title: Cupid and Psyche as Children. 1889 Oil on canvas 47 x 27 7/8 inches (119.5 x 71 cm) Private collection Added 8/27/2001 "The story of Cupid and Psyche was one of Bouguereau’s favorite myths. He painted several works inspired from this legend, such as The Rapture of Psyche, Psyche and Cupid, and Psyche. The myth of Cupid and Phsyche first appears written in The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius in the 2nd century AD. In the story, Psyche is a beautiful princess of whom the goddess Venus is jealous. In her rage she orders her son cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a monster, but Cupid falls in love with her himself. After several trials Cupid and Psyche make their plea to the gods who turn Psyche into an immortal and allow them to be married in heaven (British Library). In this painting Bouguereau was inspired to paint the two lovers together as children. Demonstrating that fate its self had a hand in there meeting. They were born to be together. The subtle paint handling captures the children’s innocence and illustrates to the viewer that Cupid's original attraction to Psyche was not purely physical, but also platonic, for the innocence of childhood does not allow for anything else. You cannot have true love without also having a mutual trust and respect, and a relaxed and enduring companionship between lovers. Cupid and Psyche’s union then is not just physical: they are soul mates and compliment each other eternally." -- by Kara Ross | 
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Translated title: The Virgin with Angels. Alternative title: Newly cleaned. Oil on canvas 84 x 60 inches (213.36 x 152.40 cm) Museum at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Glendale, California, USA Added 7/2/2009 |  | |||
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