Albany Fine Art : Biography of Adolphe-William BOUGUEREAU

Adolphe-William BOUGUEREAU

French 1825–1905

Self Portrait 1879

During his lifetime Bouguereau was considered to be one of the greatest painters in the world: in 1900 his contemporaries Edgar Degas and Claude Monet allegedly named him “the greatest 19th century French painter most likely to be remembered by the year 2000”

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France, in 1825. As a young man, he studied at the Collège de Pons and received his first drawing lessons from Louis Sage (French, 1816–1888), a student of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780 - 1867). In 1842 the family moved to Bordeaux where he enrolled in the École Municipale de Dessin et de Peinture and studied with Jean-Paul Alaux (French, 1788-1858) where, in 1844, he was awarded first prize for a painted figure of St Roch. It was at this stage that Bouguereau decided to pursue a career in painting.

In 1846 the painter François-Edouard Picot (French, 1786-1868) recommended Bouguereau for the concours d'admission to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he supported himself by keeping books for a wine merchant and colouring lithographic labels for a local grocer. He won a number of medals and was admitted to the prestigious Prix de Rome competition in each of the three years 1848-50. In his spare time, late into the night, he created drawings from memory. This diligence and discipline was to result in an extraordinarily productive artistic life.

From 1848 he was supported in his studies in Paris by the city of La Rochelle and, in 1850, his determination and talent were rewarded when he won one of the two coveted Premier Grand Prix in the Prix de Rome competition (the other being awarded to Paul Baudry (French, 1828-1886). He departed for Italy three months later and remained for the following three years. He travelled widely and had the opportunity both to develop and refine his technique and to study the works of the Italian masters. This influence manifested itself in his paintings, as he was fond of depicting idealised images of peasant life in Italy. He exhibited his realistic genre paintings and mythological themes in the annual exhibitions of the Paris Salon for his entire working life.

Like many painters of the second half of the 19th century, Bouguereau made a careful study of form and technique and steeped himself in classical sculpture and painting. True to his commitment to his art, he worked deliberately and industriously: before beginning a painting he would master the history of his subject and complete numerous sketches. The tenderness with which he portrayed children and domestic scenes, his technical skill and passion for the classics, his charming subjects ranging from images of comely peasant girls to depictions of coquettish nymphs, and his love of rich colour, are all hallmarks of Bouguereau's paintings. His polished and refined technique represented the height of achievement in the French academic tradition.

Bouguereau became the first president of the Société des Artistes Français, the association of French painters and sculptors, when it was formed in 1881. Its annual exhibition, known as The Salon, was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. As such Bouguereau was a crucial member of the Salon jury, and opposed the new, avant-garde Impressionists. When, in 1890, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815-1891) formed the breakaway Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and its New Salon, the official Salon became known as 'Le Salon Bougereau'.

During his lifetime Bouguereau was considered to be one of the greatest painters in the world. Vincent van Gogh once said, “… (I am) working on a painting that is neither drawn nor painted as correctly as Bouguereau … and I rather regret this because I have an earnest desire to be correct”. In 1900 his contemporaries Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917) and Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) allegedly named him as “the greatest 19th century French painter most likely to be remembered by the year 2000”.

Bouguereau produced some 820 paintings during his lifetime and achieved a remarkable level of public acclaim, numerous awards and great financial success. However he never forgot his own difficult, early days and assisted many young, struggling artists both practically and financially. In his old age, Bouguereau married for the second time, artist Elizabeth Jane Gardner, one of his pupils, and he used his influence to encourage many French art institutions to admit women for the first time, including the Académie Française. He died in Paris in 1905.