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Dimensions: measurements 71 3/8 by 36 1/4 in. alternate measurements 181.3 by 92.1 cm
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Provenance: Arthur Tooth & Sons, Paris (possibly purchased directly from the artist)
Private Collection
Sale: Paris, Palais Galliera, March 16, 1973
Galerie Alain Lesieutre, 1974
Private Collection
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, October 28, 1982, lot 64 (as La Jeune Bergère)
Private Collector (and sold: Sotheby's, New York, October 29, 2002, lot 42, illustrated)
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale
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Literature: Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 160
Catalogue Illustré des établissements Braun & Cie, Oeuvres choisis des Maîtres anciens et modernes, no. 4596, p. 29, Dornach
Mark Steven Walker, "A Summary Catalogue of the Paintings," in William-Adolphe Bouguereau: L'Art Pompier, exh. cat., New York, 1991, p. 74
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Notes: We would like to thank Damien Bartoli for kindly providing this catalogue note (translated from the French). This painting will be included in the forthcoming Bouguereau catalogue raisonné being prepared by Damien Bartoli with the assistance of Fred Ross, the Bouguereau Committee, and the Art Renewal Center, www.artrenewal.org.
Throughout his life, William Bouguereau deeply regretted the infrequency of official commissions to decorate places of worship. Indeed, close examination of his oeuvre attests to his great passion for religious painting, a passion that reached the magnitude of a deeply personal artistic calling. This great master filled his life with a host of dignified and melancholic Madonnas often painted with large evocative eyes castdown or lost in profound contemplation, holding in their arms or on their lap, the infant Jesus, crowned by an abundance of blonde Venetian curls.
Concurrently, Bouguereau imbued his favorite secular subjects with a similar religiosity and dignity. Equally beloved themes such as shepherdesses and knitters consequently demonstrate a tangible nobility that make up his most successful genre scenes. In addition, his bevy of maenads, naiads, dryads, and muses surrounded by the often whirling, mischievous Eros, attest to Bouguereau's pronounced taste for the kind of mythology where he could recreate a scene of vivid enchantment. He dedicated himself to this artistic task with the same fevered pitch of a joyous ritual, faithfully representing his aesthetic discipline as well as displaying his penchant for humor.
Bouguereau's compositions convey an exquisite harmony of which Les Agneaux is a superlative example. The painting is a compelling amalgam of Bouguereau's interests in mythological and religious subjects, as well as scenes from daily life. The work exudes a balanced, luminous and touching intimacy.
