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William-Adolphe Bouguereau
William Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 -
August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter. A student at the
Academie Julian in Paris, 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, 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 on earth. 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. His 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 Academie
Francais.
Small sampling of works
La Danse 1850
Tobias Saying Good-Bye to his Father 1860
Dusk 1863
Le Printemps (The Return of Spring) 1866
Alone in the World (Latest 1867)
The Knitting Girl 1869
The First Kiss 1873
Nymphs and Satyr 1873
Cupidon 1875
The Birth of Venus 1879
Evening Mood 1882
The Nut Gatherers 1882
Crown of Flowers 1884
The Shepherdess 1889
The Little Shepherdess 1891
Invading Cupid's Realm 1892
L'innocence 1893
The Abduction of Psyche 1895
The Young Shepherdess 1895
The Virgin With Angels 1900
Young Priestess 1902
The Madonna of the Roses 1903
Quotes
"One has to seek Beauty and Truth, Sir! As I always say to
my pupils, you have to work to the finish. There's only one kind
of painting. It is the painting that presents the eye with perfection,
the kind of beautiful and impeccable enamel you find in Veronese
and Titian." -- William Adolphe Bouguereau, 1895
The paintings are the excellent portrayal of the events and scenes
that we see around us. The painters are the best cameras of the
world. They reproduce many different types of pictures. They even
draw imaginary pictures that do not exist in this world. We tend
to use both thinned oil paints and dense oil paints. Masterpieces
can be dyed more than once, but each time it may be different from
the existing paintings.h
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