William Bouguereau, the most popular artist in nineteenth-century France, is rapidly becoming one of the most popular realist artists of all time. This book is an exploration of the four genres of painting that were most prevalent throughout Bouguereau’s body of work: portraits, mythology, religion and peasants. The section on portraits focuses also on Bouguereau’s paintings of heads and hands, subjects that gave the artist the opportunity to render the subtleties of human emotion, something at which he was a consummate master, and which make his works, in general, so compelling. Although each section of the book discusses the importance of the individual genres within Bouguereau’s oeuvre and includes painting analyses to highlight his most important works, William Bouguereau: The Essential Works is a true showcase of the master’s lifetime achievement.
THE ESSENTIAL WORKS
WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU
Frederick C. Ross, Founder and Chairman of the Art Renewal Center (ARC), is the leading authority on William Bouguereau. He is co-author of William Bouguereau: His Life and Works and William Bouguereau: Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work (both ACC). Ross received his MA in Art Education from Columbia University. His speeches and essays are read by many art professionals, educators, students and fans each year, and have become required reading in numerous classrooms. He is known best for the “ARC Philosophy”, which is published on the Art Renewal Center website (www.artrenewal.org). Ross is also a well-known collector of nineteenth-century European painting and Contemporary Realism. Kara Lysandra Ross is the Co-Chair and Chief Operating Officer for the world-renowned Art Renewal Center. She is also the Chief Executive Officer for The Da Vinci Initiative, dedicated to introducing skill-based art education in public and private schools K-12. She holds a BA in Art History from Drew University. As an art educator, she has been a contributing writer for Collections Magazine and Fine Art Connoisseur, and has been published frequently in other magazines and newspapers. She is the co-editor (and contributing author for the second edition) of William Bouguereau: Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work (ACC). In her role at the ARC, Ross spearheaded the introduction of the live exhibition associated with the ARC Salon Competition, serving as chief organiser. She is also an expert on nineteenth-century Academic French and English painting and is currently researching and writing the catalogue raisonné of Edmund Blair Leighton, on whom she is accepted as the world authority.
Frederick C. Ross & Kara Lysandra Ross
To see the full catalogue of books published by ACC Art Books, please go to our website: www.accartbooks.com
WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU THE ESSENTIAL WORKS
ACC ART BOOKS Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD, UK Tel: 01394 389950 email: uksales@accartbooks.com 6 West 18th Street, Suite 4B New York NY10011, USA Tel: 212 645 1111 email: ussales@accartbooks.com
ISBN: 978-1-85149-910-6
ËxHSLIPBy499106zv&:<:;:!:! £45.00/$65.00
www.accartbooks.com
Frederick C. Ross & Kara Lysandra Ross
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
W
e feel it would not be right to publish this book without acknowledging Mark Steven Walker for his early research on William Bouguereau in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s. He had the intent of completing the Catalogue Raisonné of his work, until his untimely death in 1993. We also thank Damien Bartoli and Frederick C. Ross for the two-volume set on Bouguereau, first published in 2010. Bartoli passed away in 2009,
only one year before the book was published. This current publication, The Essential Works of William Bouguereau, would not have been possible without the work and dedication of these two men; much of the factual information provided in this book relied on their research. We would also like to thank Shane Wolf, an outstanding artist, teacher and friend, for his assistance with the French edition.
Note regarding captions in this book: For the works of William Bouguereau, only the dimensions and date are included, the media throughout being oil on canvas.
(Opposite) Le Repos (Resting), 1879. 164 x 107cm (641⁄2 x 421⁄2). See page 201. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.
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Lady Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema. The Persistent Reader, 1888. Oil on panel, 58.42 x 44.5cm (23 x 17½in.) Private collection.
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INTRODUCTION
B
y the final three decades of his life, William Bouguereau (1825–1905) was the most famous artist in France, and his fame extended across Europe and America. He was a known fighter for justice and equality, donating considerable amounts of time to help the poor and the unfortunate. He won almost every honour, award and accolade available to a French painter during his lifetime, starting with the Prix de Rome in 1850. He became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1875 and was one of the longest-serving members of the Institut National des Sciences et des Arts, referred to simply as the Institut (Institute), from 1876 until his death in 1905. In 1885 Bouguereau served as president of the Institut, presiding over all five of its academies. In this same year, Bouguereau was elected president of the benevolent association founded by Baron Isidore Taylor, whose goal was to accumulate funds to help support less-fortunate artists and their families. At the funeral of Victor Hugo, the most beloved poet and writer in France, Bouguereau was chosen to give a graveside eulogy as he was as revered for painting as Hugo was for literature.1 He was one of the head instructors at the Académie Julian, where he was instrumental in the addition of courses for aspiring women artists (previously excluded from all such French courses), and he became the chairman of the Société des Artistes Français. He was a jury member for the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and 1900 and finally Grand Officier in the Légion d’Honneur in 1903. To better understand the significance of William Bouguereau and what he meant to nineteenthcentury art, this introductory section will examine art in France during the nineteenth century and the corresponding importance of his aforementioned achievements. In the middle of the nineteenth century, political and social upheavals inspired by the revolutions
in America and France spread across Europe. As a result, art in the first half of the century was very different to that in the second. The world of the Paris Salon, the annual art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and the types of works shown became liberalised in 1849 and there was a transformation in thinking amongst artists at this time.2 In England, there was the birth of the middle class that emerged from industrialisation and significant increases in international trade, starting at the end of the eighteenth century. From 1809 to 1839, imports almost doubled, growing from £28.7 million to £52 million, and exports tripled, from £25.4 million to £76 million.3 The middle class in France also grew between 1815 and 1847 along with domestic and foreign commerce. This was in large part due to increasing advancements in all areas of communication and transportation, including newly invented technologies such as steam navigation, railways and the electric telegraph. Natural waterways were improved and heavy emphasis was placed on the building of new canals.4 Because of this strong economic and ideological shift, the figurative art from the first half of the nineteenth century tended to focus more on history whereas in the latter half, it focused on everyday life and popular fiction.5 With the newly acquired freedom to paint subjects other than historical and religious works, portraiture and the aristocracy, there was an explosion of new subject matter. Just as Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and other masterpieces of the past brought to life scenes from the Bible, the later nineteenth-century masters not only addressed the social concerns of the time, but also brought to life scenes from the poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the stories of Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, and ancient Greek and Roman subject matter. It is also
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Julien Dupré. Le Ballon (The Balloon), 1887. Oil on canvas, 242.5 x 200.7 cm (95½ x 79in.) Private collection.
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Henry-Jules-Jean Geoffroy. Les résignés (The Resigned), 1901. Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 150cm (43½ x 59in.) Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.
John William Waterhouse. I am Half sick of Shadows said the Lady of Shalott, 1915. Oil on canvas, 100 x 74 cm (393⁄8 x 291⁄8in.) Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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Portrait de Mademoiselle H. Avon (Portrait of Mademoiselle H. Avon), 1892. Measurements unknown Present whereabouts unknown.
has caught her attention and the onlooker can see her mind at work. In the second work, Une vocation (1890), we see the child as an almost stoic figure, perhaps a budding young artist, as she sketches the rudimentary figure of what appears to be a sad little man. Bouguereau may well be making reference to a recent development in the formal education of women. In 1880, an act proposed by politician Camille Sée brought secondary schools for women into existence in France, but by 1896 only 36 such schools existed.16 The Académie Julian had first opened its doors to female students in 1873, a full 30 years in advance of the École des Beaux-Arts.17 So, at the time this work was painted, women could still not attend the formal art school of France at which Bouguereau himself was so keen to study. In Bouguereau’s painting of Une vocation, the artist is making a statement on the lack of – and need for – formal education of women, this
young girl being called to an artistic career but lacking the formal resources to attain the training she desires to enhance her skills. Bouguereau would often paint girls with books or while writing, or while travelling to the primary schools that were available to young girls at this time, with the intention of promoting and supporting the education of women. In addition to the formal portraits featured in this chapter, it is important to note that, because portraits are often kept by the descendants of the sitter, many such works by Bouguereau have not surfaced with good quality colour images available. Examples are Portrait de Mademoiselle Ella Colonna Czosnowska (1886), Portrait de Mademoiselle Ruth Hill (1886), Portrait d’enfant de Madame Porter (1889) and Portrait de Mademoiselle H. Avon (1892). This doesn’t include the aforementioned missing 31 portraits Bouguereau painted before attending the École des Beaux-Arts.
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Portrait de Mademoiselle Pauline Brissac (Portrait of Mademoiselle Pauline Brissac), 1863. 91 x 71cm (357â „8 x 28in.) Private collection, New York, USA.
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Portrait de Mademoiselle Hoskier (Portrait of Mademoiselle Hoskier), 1869. 46 x 38.5 cm (181â „8 x 151â „8 in.) Santa Barbara Museum of Fine Art, USA.
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La femme au gant (The Woman with a Glove), 1870. 61 x 51cm (24 x 201â „8in.) Private collection, California, USA.
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163
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La Madone aux roses (The Madonna of the Roses), 1903. 132 x 89cm (52 x 35in.)
Private collection, Jay Gould Museum, New York, USA
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168
William Bouguereau, the most popular artist in nineteenth-century France, is rapidly becoming one of the most popular realist artists of all time. This book is an exploration of the four genres of painting that were most prevalent throughout Bouguereau’s body of work: portraits, mythology, religion and peasants. The section on portraits focuses also on Bouguereau’s paintings of heads and hands, subjects that gave the artist the opportunity to render the subtleties of human emotion, something at which he was a consummate master, and which make his works, in general, so compelling. Although each section of the book discusses the importance of the individual genres within Bouguereau’s oeuvre and includes painting analyses to highlight his most important works, William Bouguereau: The Essential Works is a true showcase of the master’s lifetime achievement.
THE ESSENTIAL WORKS
WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU
Frederick C. Ross, Founder and Chairman of the Art Renewal Center (ARC), is the leading authority on William Bouguereau. He is co-author of William Bouguereau: His Life and Works and William Bouguereau: Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work (both ACC). Ross received his MA in Art Education from Columbia University. His speeches and essays are read by many art professionals, educators, students and fans each year, and have become required reading in numerous classrooms. He is known best for the “ARC Philosophy”, which is published on the Art Renewal Center website (www.artrenewal.org). Ross is also a well-known collector of nineteenth-century European painting and Contemporary Realism. Kara Lysandra Ross is the Co-Chair and Chief Operating Officer for the world-renowned Art Renewal Center. She is also the Chief Executive Officer for The Da Vinci Initiative, dedicated to introducing skill-based art education in public and private schools K-12. She holds a BA in Art History from Drew University. As an art educator, she has been a contributing writer for Collections Magazine and Fine Art Connoisseur, and has been published frequently in other magazines and newspapers. She is the co-editor (and contributing author for the second edition) of William Bouguereau: Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work (ACC). In her role at the ARC, Ross spearheaded the introduction of the live exhibition associated with the ARC Salon Competition, serving as chief organiser. She is also an expert on nineteenth-century Academic French and English painting and is currently researching and writing the catalogue raisonné of Edmund Blair Leighton, on whom she is accepted as the world authority.
Frederick C. Ross & Kara Lysandra Ross
To see the full catalogue of books published by ACC Art Books, please go to our website: www.accartbooks.com
WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU THE ESSENTIAL WORKS
ACC ART BOOKS Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD, UK Tel: 01394 389950 email: uksales@accartbooks.com 6 West 18th Street, Suite 4B New York NY10011, USA Tel: 212 645 1111 email: ussales@accartbooks.com
ISBN: 978-1-85149-910-6
ËxHSLIPBy499106zv&:<:;:!:! £45.00/$65.00
www.accartbooks.com
Frederick C. Ross & Kara Lysandra Ross