Auction Houses that have sold Bouguereau - 25
Biography
(b
La
Rochelle,
France,
1825;
d
La
Rochelle,
1905)
French
painter.
Bouguereau
trained
in
Paris
at
the
École
des
Beaux
Arts
beginning
in
1846
and
was
a
candidate
for
the
prestigious
Prix
de
Rome
in
1848,
1849
and
1850.
In
1850,
Bouguereau
was
awarded
the
Prix
de
Rome,
providing
him
the
enviable
opportunity
to
travel
and
study
throughout
Italy.
Over
three
years,
the
young
artist
filled
numerous
sketch
books
and
canvases
with
copies
of
Renaissance
... (view more)
(b La Rochelle, France, 1825; d La Rochelle, 1905) French painter. Bouguereau trained in Paris at the École des Beaux Arts beginning in 1846 and was a candidate for the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1848, 1849 and 1850. In 1850, Bouguereau was awarded the Prix de Rome, providing him the enviable opportunity to travel and study throughout Italy. Over three years, the young artist filled numerous sketch books and canvases with copies of Renaissance masterpieces, detailed drawings of ancient artifacts, and colorful landscapes of the idyllic hill towns and lake regions around Rome. Bouguereau was inspired by the simple beauty of the Italian country girls who lived in Italy's ancient cities and featured them in a number of compositions completed in the late 1860s and early 1870s. When Bouguereau returned from his sojourn in Italy, his reputation as one of the Ecole's leading artists was already established. He began submitting his work to the Salon des Beaux-Arts on a regular basis, and would do so nearly every year until his death in 1905, leaving an astounding body of work that encompassed over seven hundred finished paintings. From the 1870s onward, Bouguereau devoted an increasingly significant portion of his activity to painting the girls in his hometown of La Rochelle and the surrounding countryside with the same passion he brought to his other more monumental history subjects. Bouguereau's elevation of his sitter's individual feelings and experiences to a universal level may well be the singular achievement of the artist's long and illustrious career. Greatly respected by his fellow artists, Bouguereau was elected president of the painting section of the Salon in 1881. In 1883, he was elected president of the Society of Painters, Architects, Sculptors, Engravers and Designers, a society formed to help struggling artists, and he retained this position until his death. His influence upon a generation of artists was thereby secured. This influence spread through his teaching of drawing at the Ecole, a position he was awarded in 1888. In 1875, he began teaching at the Académie Julien, an art school independent of the Ecole, which enabled the master to influence an even broader spectrum of students. Bouguereau's influence upon the art education in France in the second half of the 19th Century cannot be underestimated and many of the most-talented artists of the period were indebted to the great artist. (Credit: Sotheby’s, New York, 19th Century European Art, October 23, 2007, lot 32; Sotheby’s, New York, 19th Century European Art including The Orientalist Sale, October 23, 2008, lot 66; Christie’s, New York, 19th Century European Art and Orientalist Art, October 22, 2008, lot 135)
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