William-Adolphe Bouguereau
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William Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 - August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter.
Biography
William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle.A student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he won the Prix de Rome in 1850 and his realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were exhibited in the annual exhibitions of the Paris Salon for his entire working life. Although he fell into disregard in the early 20th century, due perhaps to his staunch opposition to the Impressionists, there is a new appreciation for his work. In his lifetime, Bouguereau painted eight hundred and twenty-six paintings.
In his own time, Bouguereau was considered to be one of the greatest painters in the world. In 1900, his contemporaries Degas and Monet reportedly named him as most likely to be remembered as the greatest 19th century French painter by the year 2000, according to chairman Fred Ross of the Art Renewal Center. Although with Degas' famous trenchant wit, and the aesthetic tendencies of the two Impressionists, it is possible the statement was meant as an ironic comment on the taste of the future public. Bouguereau's works were eagerly bought, at high prices, especially by American millionaires. After about 1920, Bouguereau fell into a curious disrepute. Some assert this may have been consciously engineered by the new "art expert establishment", who resented his former opposition to new developments in painting, but it is likely that more profound societal factors were instrumental to this enormous shift in taste and sensibility. For decades, his name was not even mentioned in encyclopedias. Today, over one hundred museums throughout the world exhibit his works.
At a rather advanced age, Bouguereau married for the second time, with fellow artist Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau, one of his pupils. He also used his influence to open many French art institutions to women for the first time, including the Académie française.
Real name dilemma
Sources on his full name are contradictory; some give William-Adolphe Bouguereau (composed name), William Adolphe Bouguereau (usual and civil-only names according to the French tradition), while others give Adolphe William Bouguereau (with Adolphe as the usual name). However, the artist used to sign his works simply as William Bouguereau (hinting "William" was the usual name), or more precisely as "W.Bouguereau.date" (French alphabet) and later as "W-BOVGVEREAV-date" (Latin alphabet).
Small sampling of works
- Dante and Virgil in Hell 1850
- La Danse 1850
- Tobias Saying Good-Bye to his Father 1860
- Alone in the World (Latest 1867)
- The Knitting Girl 1869
- Le Coquillage 1871
- The First Kiss 1873
- Nymphs and Satyr 1873
- Cupidon 1875
- La Vierge, L'Enfant Jésus et Saint Jean-Baptiste 1875
- The Birth of Venus 1879
- Evening Mood 1882
- The Nut Gatherers 1882
- Crown of Flowers 1884
- Le Printemps (The Return of Spring) 1886
- The Shepherdess 1889
- The Bohemian 1890
- Câlinerie 1890
- The Little Shepherdess 1891
- Le Travail Interrompu (Pénélope) 1891
- Invading Cupid's Realm 1892
- L'Innocence 1893
- The Abduction of Psyche 1895
- The Young Shepherdess 1895
- Before the Bath (1900)
- The Virgin With Angels 1900
- Young Priestess 1902
- The Madonna of the Roses 1903
See also
External links
- [William-Adolphe Bouguereau at the Web Museum]
- [William-Adolphe Bouguereau at artrenewal.org]
- [Bouguereau at Work]
- [Nymphs and Satyr]
- http://www.elp.it/bygothic/Gallery/Bouguereau/index.html - Art Gallery
- [Art Renewal Center]
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