William Adolphe Bouguereau Posters Prints Fine Art

Cupidon Art Print

Angels Playing Violon

Two Girls Art Print

Nymphaeum, 1878 Art Print

The Young Seamstress

L'Innocence Art Print

Whisperings of Love

The Bathers Art Print

Pause for Thought

Two Sisters Art Print

Le Premier Baiser

The Heart's Awakening

Le Jour des Morts

Reflective Beauty Giclee Print

The First Kiss

Museums: William Bouguereau may be found at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Longer biography
William-Adolphe Bouguereau had been born in La Rochelle, France in 1825, to a family in the wine and olive oil business. He appeared bound to join the family line of work, but avoided this through an intercession by his uncle Eugene, a parson, who tutored him on classical as well as scriptural topics and made arrangements for the young Bouguereau to attend high school. Bouguereau demonstrated artistic skill early in life and his father had been won over by a customer to place his talented son in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Bordeaux, where he was awarded a first prize in figure painting with a portrayal of Saint Roch. To bring in additional money, Bouguereau designed labels for a jam and preserves line.

With the connections of his uncle, Bouguereau had been granted a commission to create portraits of parishioners, and his aunt equaled the amount of funds he brought in, allowing Bouguereau to travel to Paris where he would become a pupil in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. To add to his formal studies in drawing, he went to anatomy dissections as well as took lessons on historic costumes and archaeology. He had been accepted in the studio of Francois-Edouard Picot where he would learn art techniques of academic methods. He created academic paintings of historical as well as mythical themes. Bouguereau was awarded the sought after Prix de Rome during 1850, with the painting titled Zenobia Found by Shepherds on the Banks of the Araxes. Bouguereau's reward had been a visit to the Villa Medici in Rome, Italy, which afforded him the chance to not only follow traditional studies, but be allowed to analyze first-hand the Renaissance painters and the great masterpieces.

Ravissement de Psyche

Mother and Child

The Madonna of the Roses

Cupidon (detail) Art Print

The Storybook Art Print

Therese Giclee Print

Napoleon III Visiting Flood Victims of Tarascon

The Bathers Art Print

Whisperings of Love,

While in Rome Bouguereau accomplished one of the requirements necessary for the Prix de Rome by finishing a old master replicate. For this he chose Raphael's piece The Triumph of Galatea. In several of his paintings, Bouguereau adopted a corresponding classic view of to composition, form, as well as theme content.

During 1856, he wed Marie-Nelly Monchablon and the couple bore 5 children. With the late 1850's, Bouguereau had buiilt a network of firm associations with art dealers, in particular Paul Durand-Ruel, an art dealer who would later become a supporter of the Impressionists art movement, and who aided customers to purchase art works from painters who exhibited with the Paris Salons. The Salons each year attracted more than 300,000 people, thus allowing for important exposure to displayed painters. Bouguereau's popularity reached England by the 1860's which allowed him to purchase a large home with studio in Montparnasse using his developing salary.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau had been a unswerving traditionalist. His realistic genre paintings and mythological subjects were contemporary renderings of Classical topics, they are both pagan as well as Christian, with a strong absorption with the female human form. While he painted a perfect world, his nearly photo-realistic manner brought to life the beautiful women and girls of his art in a manner that had been quite attractive to moneyed art supporters of his era. The reality that his peasants forever bore clean feet, clean clothes, as well as exquisite faces and bore no signs of dirt or poverty was completely satisfactory to his supporters. A few critics, all the same, favored the truthfulness of artists Jean Francois Millet's truer-to-life portrayal of common hard working farmers and real life renderings of day laborers.

Bouguereau utilized the traditional techniques of building up to the actual painting of a piece, which included careful pencil as well as oil studies, and his deliberate technique led to a satisfying and correct depicting of the human figure. His art work of skin, hands, and feet was especially respected. He as well applied a few of the religious and erotic symbolism in the manner of the Old Masters, as can be seen in the painting titled the Broken Pitcher that implied the loss of innocence.

Among the advantages of remaining inside the Academic style as well as success with the Salons had been picking up commissions to adorn private homes, public buildings, along with church buildings. As was characteristic of such commissions, occasionally Bouguereau could paint in his personal style, while other occasions he was required to follow a group fashion already in place. Early in his career Bouguereau had been authorized in all three venues, which contributed tremendously to his prestige and renown. He likewise produced smaller versions of his public art works for sale to clients. The Annunciation is an illustration of one of these small editions. At the same time he was a flourishing portrait artist. Several of his portraits of affluent patrons today still reside in private ownership.

Bouguereau steadily attained accolades from the Royal Academy, achieving Life Member during 1876, along with Commander of the Legion of Honor as well as Grand Medal of Honor during the year 1885. He started as an instructor of drawing with the Academie Julian during 1875, as well as a co-ed art foundation independent from the École des Beaux-Arts. The co-ed institute required no entrance exams and requested only minimal entry fees.

During 1877, both Bouguereau's wife and infant son passed away. At an advanced age, he had been married for the 2nd time during 1896, to colleague painter Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau, who had been among his students. Bouguereau utilized his prestige to open up numerous French art establishments to women for the first time during this period.

Bouguereau, adhered to the traditional Academic manner, and participated in exhibits of the Paris Salon each year for his total working lifetime. He painted an amazing eight hundred and twenty-six art works. Bouguereau was 80 years old when he died at La Rochelle 80 from heart disease.

- A little girl 1886
- A Soul Brought to Heaven
- A Young Beauty
- A young girl wearing a pitcher 1885
- A young girl with a basket of fruit 1905
- About Tendres
- Admiration maternal 1869
- After the bath
- After the Bath 1894
- All Souls' Day
- All Souls Days
- Alma Parens 1883
- Alone in the World, only the World
- An angel 32.4x25.6
- Art and Literature
- At the Fountain 1897
- Bacchante 1894
- Bacchante 1899
- Back Field 1898
- Badende
- Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithae
- Beauty Romanesque 1904
- Berceuse 1875
- Bergère Bordeaux 1871
- Bohémienne drum basque 1867
- Bohémienne the drum Basque
- Brother and sister 1887
- Cain and Abel 1861
- Charity 1865
- Child holding flowers 1878
- Child weaving a crown 1874
- Childhood Idyll
- Children asleep 1868
- Children riverside 1879
- Compassion
- Cupid and Psyche, 1889 children
- Cupidon 1875
- Daisies, daisy 1894
- Dante and Virgil in Hell 1850
- Dawn
- Day 1884
- Day of the Dead
- Distraction 1868
- Dusk 1882
- Earrings 188 - 1890
- Elegy
- Elizabeth Jane Gardner 1879
- Espièglerie 1895
- Evening Mood 1882
- Far Niente 1904
- Faun and Bacchante 1860
- First carresses 100x67
- First jewellery 1891
- First Kiss
- Fortunata 1879 46x38
- Genevieve Celine eldest Daughter of Adolphe Bouguereau
- Girl crochet 1889
- Girl dévidant of wool Dévideuse 1877
- Glaneuse 1894
- Gypsy Girl with Tambourine 1867 Basque
- Head girl head with hands 1890
- Head of Italian c.1867
- Head of young woman
- Head Study of a Young Woman 1898
- Heart's Awakening
- Homer and his Guide
- Idyll
- Idylle
- Injury love 1897
- Innocence 1873
- Innocence 1893
- Inspiration 1898
- Irene 1897 46x38
- Italian for the fountain 1870
- Italian mandolin in 1870
- Jacob receiving the tunic of his son c.1845
- Jeannie 1868
- Junges, schwarzhaariges Mädchen in weissem Hemd 1896
- Kanephoros
- La Fille d'Eau
- La Soif 1886
- Lady Maxwell 1890
- L'Age d'Or 1863
- L'Amour 1886 winner
- L'Amour disarmed 1885
- L'Amour in 1894 Epine
- L'amour injured 1857
- L'Amour resting 1891
- L'Aurore
- Le Jour 1884
- Le Repos 1880
- Le Réveil 1865
- Lever
- L'Innocence
- Little Beggar Girl
- Little girl along the creek holding a sheaf of flowers 1886
- Little girl with blue bowl 1879
- L'Oiseau beloved 1867
- Love Conquers all, Love Winner 1886
- Love the butterfly 1888
- Love's Secrets 1896
- Lunch in the morning 1887
- Madonna with the Christ Child and St. John The Baptist 1863
- Marguerite 1903
- Maternal Admiration
- Meditation 1902
- Mignon pensive 1869
- Nymph holding a Laurel Branch 1900
- Nymphs and Satyr 1873
- Offering to Love c.1893
- Orphan by a Spring, an orphan from the fountain 1883
- Outline for L'Amour Nursery
- Outline for The Oranges
- Pâquerette 1894
- Petite beggar 1880
- Pietà 1876
- Pifferaro 1874
- Plums 1896
- Portrait maiden 1890
- Portrait of a Girl
- Portrait of a young Girl 1890
- Portrait of a Young Girl 1896
- Portrait of a Young Girl crocheting 1886
- Portrait of a young Girl plucking the Petals of a Daisy 1881
- Portrait of a young girl, bust length
- Portrait of Adolphe Bouguereau
- Portrait of Amelina Dufaud Bouguereau
- Portrait of Elizabeth Jane Gardner 1879
- Portrait of Eugene Bouguereau
- Portrait of Eugene Bouguereau
- Portrait of Gabrielle Cot 1890
- Portrait of Gabrielle Drienza 1890
- Portrait of Isaac Adolphe Bouguereau
- Portrait of Jennifer Bouguereau
- Portrait of Léonie Bouguereau
- Portrait of Madame de W.
- Portrait of Madame de Wendel
- Portrait of Madame Ginain 1887
- Portrait of Madame Olry-Roederer 1900
- Portrait of Marie-Therese Bartholoni 1865
- Portrait of Miss Addison Head of San Francisco 1874
- Portrait of Pauline Brissac 1864
- Portrait of the Abbot Hontang 1846
- Portrait Study
- Prime jewellery 1891
- Psyche and Cupid 1889
- Putti on a griffin
- Putti on a sea monster 1857
- Range natural, girl-child 1881
- Reflection 1898
- Rêverie 1894
- Secrets of Love 1896
- Self-portrait 1886
- Shepherdess with Sheaf of Wheat 1890
- Sketch of a young Girl's Head
- Sleep 1864
- Slumber
- Small Maraudeuses 1872
- Song of the Angels
- Songs spring 1889
- Summer
- The 1864 War
- The 1895 reading
- The 1898 Dream
- The Abduction of Psyche 1895
- The Annunciation
- The Awakening Heart 1892
- The Bather 1879
- The Big Sister
- The Birth of Venus 1879
- The Bohemian 1890
- The Book of Hours 1867
- The Bouquet 1896
- The brotherly love
- The Charity 1878
- The Crab 1869
- The Dance 1856
- The Day 1884
- The Day of the Dead
- The eldest sister 1886
- The first jewellery 1891
- The ford 1895
- The Grapes, The cluster of grapes 1869
- The Holy Family 1863
- The Idylle 1850
- The Italian mandolin in 1870
- The Italian tambourine in 1869
- The Kiss 1863
- The Lambs 1897
- The Laurel Branch
- The lesson difficult 1880
- The lesson difficult 1884
- The Little Brother, the younger brother 1900
- The little seamstress 1898
- The Lost Pleiad 1884
- The Madonna of the Lilies
- The Madonna of the Roses 1903
- The mischievous One 1895
- The mower 1872
- The muse Philomela 1861
- The muse 1861
- The Nymphaeum 1878
- The Oranges 1865
- The Pearl 1894
- The Return of Market 1869
- The Return of Spring
- The reverence 1898
- The shell 1871
- The small bléssée 1879
- The small Ophelia 1875
- The small tricoteuse 1875
- The small Vendangeuse 1883
- The soup
- The Spring 1858
- The Storm 1874
- The Taste 1895
- The temptation
- The toilet rustic 1869
- The tricoteuse 1884
- The tricoteuse 1891
- The triumph of Venus 1857
- The two sisters 1899
- The veil 1898
- The Virgin and Angels 1900
- The Virgin and lamb 1903
- The Virgin Study for the Angels
- The Virgin, the Child Jesus and Saint John the Baptist 1875
- The vow to Sainte-Anne-d'Auray 1869
- The Wasp's Nest
- The wave 1896
- The wave 1903
- The Winter Autumn
- The young worker 1893
- Trees in a Landscape coastal 1867
- Whisperings of Love
- Woman in a Stiped Dress
- Woman in Italian costume 1867
- Woman in the range 1895
- Woman of Cervara Child and her 1861
- Woman shell 1885
- Young Bathers 1879
- Young Girl
- Young Girl Defending Herself Against Love
- Young Italian drawing of water 1871
- Young John the Baptist
- Young mother contemplating her child 1871
- Young Priestess 1902
- Young shepherdess
- Young woman and child 1878
- Young Woman Contemplating Two Embracing Children
- Youth 1893
- Yvonnette