Adolphe-William Bouguereau
| William-Adolphe Bouguereau | |
|---|---|
Portrait of the Artist (1879)
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| Born |
William-Adolphe Bouguereau November 30, 1825 La Rochelle, France |
| Died | August 19, 1905 (aged 79) La Rochelle, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for | Painter |
| Notable work | |
| Movement | Realism, Academic Art |
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French pronunciation: [wijam.adɔlf buɡ(ə)ʁo]; November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter and traditionalist. In his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. Throughout the course of his life, Bouguereau executed 822 known finished paintings, although the whereabouts of many are still unknown.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France, on November 30, 1825, into a family of wine and olive oil merchants. The son of Théodore Bouguereau (born 1800) and Marie Bonnin (1804), known as Adeline, William was brought up a Catholic. He had an older brother, Alfred, and a younger sister, Marie (known as Hanna), who died when she was seven. The family moved to Saint-Martin-de-Ré in 1832. Another sibling was born in 1834, Kitty. At 12 the boy went to Mortagne to stay with his uncle Eugène, a priest, and developed a love of nature, religion and literature. In 1839 he was sent to study the priesthood at a Catholic college in Pons. Here he was taught to draw and paint by Louis Sage who had studied under Ingres. William reluctantly left his studies to return to his family, now residing in Bordeaux. Here the boy met a local artist, Charles Marionneau, and commenced at the Municipal School of Drawing and Painting in November, 1841. William also worked as a shop assistant, hand-colouring lithographs and making small paintings that were reproduced using chromolithography. He was soon the best pupil in his class and decided to become an artist in Paris. To fund the move, he sold portraits - 33 oils in three months. All were unsigned and only one has been traced. He arrived in Paris aged 20 in March 1846.
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