Born
in La Rochelle, France,
William Adolphe
Bougereau began his
studies in 1838 with
Louis Sage, a student of
renowned Romantic
painter Ingres. After
moving to Bordeaux in
1842, the artist
attended the cole
Municipale de Dessin et
de Peinture in Bordeaux.
Bougereau gained
local acclaim as a
talented portrait
painter before going to
Paris in 1846 to attend
cole des Beaux Arts,
noted for its
traditional academic
approach to painting. In
1850 Bougereau was
awarded the coveted Prix
de Rome and spent four
years at the Villa
Medici studying
Classical and
Renaissance
masterpieces. The potent
influence of Classical
works is readily
apparent in works dating
after this period.
Bougereau blended
classical poses and
subject matter with his
own romanticized realism
rendered in the highly
finished style that
would come to
characterize his
paintings. During the
1870s Bougereau's focus
shifted from historical
and genre scenes to
lighter, lyrical
mythological subjects.
Highly regarded by his
contemporaries,
Bougereau was awarded
numerous state
commissions and, at the
height of his career,
taught at the Academie
Julian and the cole des
Beaux Arts.
Throughout his
lifetime, Bougereau
staunchly defended the
academic tradition of
painting and was viewed
as an obstructionist by
the new generation of
painters who were
experimenting with
Impressionism. While
immensely popular during
his lifetime,
Bougereau's reputation
suffered with the advent
of the modernists who
viewed his work as
mediocre and overly
sentimental. Recent
exhibitions have focused
attention on the
contribution of mid-19th
century artists and
Bougereau's work has
enjoyed a resurgence in
popularity.
