William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Self-portrait of William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I accept and respect all schools of painting which have as their basis the sincere study of nature, the search for the true and the beautiful. As for the mystics, the impressionists, the pointillists, etc., I don't see the way they see. That is my only reason for not liking them.
---William-Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in 1825 in La Rochelle, France. He was the member of a family of wine and olive oil merchants. It was expected that Bouguereau would carry on the business, but the intervening education of an uncle who was a curate was instrumental in beginning Bouguereau’s journey into becoming one of the greatest artists of all time. William-Adolphe Bouguereau was the last in a line of great western artists beginning with Raphael. Raphael also happened to be one of Bouguereau’s favorite painters.

Under the tutorage of his uncle Bouguereau immersed himself in the study of Biblical and classical subjects. Early on he showed great promise as an artist, so he was sent to school to study the subject first in Bordeaux, then in Paris, and later in Rome. During this time he was a diligent and attentive student, winning prizes, earning pocket money designing labels for jams and preserves, and doing bookkeeping for a wine merchant. He studied anatomy, historical costuming, and archaeology. The knowledge gained from his observations and study is evident in his work which is Romantic and has an almost photographic quality. Bouguereau's world is one of youth, beauty, history, refinement, a celebration of femininity, and a tasteful eroticism.

Throughout his life time William-Adolphe Bourguereau was never the stereotypical “starving artist.” He made a great deal of money being patronized especially by American millionaires of the day who loved investing in fine art. Bourguereau’s art was placed on exhibit almost annually throughout his lifetime in the Salon. The Salon was the largest art exhibition worldwide for nearly 2 centuries in France. Bourguereau painted over 700 paintings, most of which were life sized. His themes were mainly based of stories from classical and Biblical antiquity. He also painted portraits of the rich and created a Romanticized image of the peasantry with lovely fresh faced girls and beautiful children with rosy cheeks.

Near the end of his life when Impressionism and the avant-garde were coming into vogue, he was the victim of relentless attacks on his work and his character. A staunch traditionalist, the young generation like Edgar Degas and his friends and fellow artists coined the word "Bougeuereauté" which was a derogatory term for any artistic work that is “slick with artificial surfaces.” Bourguereau was slandered as being stingy, self-centered, and a lecher, accusations that were not true. Bourguereau was very liberal in his financial and moral support for young up and coming artists. In fact, his second wife Elizabeth Jane Gardner was an American and had been his student while struggling as a penniless artist in Paris. Because of his sympathy for her, Bourguereau became an advocate of women artists, helping to open up doors for them in the art world of Paris. The accusation of lechery was also not true. His critics pointed to the many nudes he painted of women as evidence of a man with a lewd nature. Of over 700 works, only 10% of Bourguereau’s art was of the nude female form.

After William-Adolphe Bourguereau’s death in 1905, knowledge of his work was wiped from art history’s records. He was not studied in art history classes. No references were made to him in art encyclopedias. It was like he never existed. Throughout his long and fruitful career as an artist, Bourguereau focused on the refined and beautiful. His tastes were not in accord with the art world that emerged prior to and especially after the first World War. What he stood for became an embarrassment in the modern age. His paintings were kept hidden out of sight in the basements of museums. Only the wealthy who owned private pieces of his works kept their Bouguereaus on display in their homes.

It was not until 1974 that some of his art was displayed in a show at the New York Cultural Center. Today a Bourguereau can command high prices at art auctions. His work is on permanent display in over 100 museums worldwide. Once maligned, forgotten, and now rediscovered, stores selling artistic prints often have Bourguereaus.

I have prints of these two paintings.
The Little Shepherdess, 1891
The Virgin With Angels, 1900

Here are two videos of some of his work. The song in the first is sung by the great Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. The second is by Bryan Adams from the film Don Juan DeMarco




More paintings by William-Adolphe Bourguereau can be seen here.