William-Adolphe Bouguereau
From Metapedia
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French painter at La Rochelle. Bouguereau paid his own way through the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Bouguereau painted over seven hundred works. He achieved a very high level of acclaim in his lifetime. He helped young struggling artists. He made a very careful study of form and technique and studied classical art very carefully. He was very serious and industrious and worked most deliberately and industriously. He would the history of his subject and finish numerous drawing before he would even start a painting. He was well known for his rich bright color and beautiful paintings of children and domestic scenes. His work shows great skill and passion.
Bouguereau worked odd jobs while he was at Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1843 till 1850. In 1850 shared the Grand Prix de Rome with Baudry, the subject set being "Zenobia on the banks of the Araxes." After he return from Rome in 1855 he decorated several aristocratic residences, deriving inspiration from the frescoes which he had seen at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and which had already suggested his "Idyll" (1853).
In 1847 Bouguereau began to exhibit regularly at the Salon. "The Martyr's Triumph," the body of St Cecilia borne to the catacombs, was placed in the Luxembourg after being exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. The state subsequently commissioned him to paint the emperor's visit to the sufferers by the inundations at Tarascon. In 1857 he received a first prize medal. He executed nine panels in wax-painting for the mansion of M. Bartholomy are very much admired; "Love," "Friendship," "Fortune," "Spring," "Summer," "Dancing," "Anion on a Sea-horse," a "Bacchante" and the "Four Divisions of the Day."
At the Paris Exhibition of 1867 Bouguereau took a third-class medal, in 1878 a medal of honour, and the same again in the Salon of 1885. He was chosen by the Society of French Artists to be their vice-president, a post he filled with much energy. He was made a member of the Legion of Honour in 1856, an officer of the Order 26th of July 1876, and commander 12th of July 1885. He succeeded Isidore Pils as member of the Institute, 8th of January 1876. He died on the 10th of August 1905.
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"One has to seek Beauty and Truth, Sir! As I always say to my pupils, you have to work to the finish. There's only one kind of painting. It is the painting that presents the eye with perfection, the kind of beautiful and impeccable enamel you find in Veronese and Titian."-- Adolphe-William Bouguereau
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