The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

August 19, 2014

August 19, 1905

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 to August 19, 1905) , the painter,  once ruled the French art world. Here is a recent assessment.


....The whims of taste, like those of fashion, change. And anyone trying to keep up with whatever is lauded as the avant-garde must feel somewhat dazed and confused. Not long ago, art-historically speaking, Abstract Expressionism reigned. Now, empty, academic realism—which prizes resplendent surface effects over the development of metaphor and form—has risen again to power. We can trace academic art's ascendance from Pop art to the recent canonization of illustrator Norman Rockwell and the celebration of vacant, formless paintings by John Currin, Eric Fischl, Gerhard Richter, Kehinde Wiley and Lisa Yuskavage—all of which have set the stage for the re-emergence of the Neoclassical painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905).

Although Mr. Bouguereau's paintings were reviled by the Impressionists (whom Mr. Bouguereau kept out of the Salon), Matisse (whom he kicked out of his atelier) and Van Gogh, he was revered by the court and the public as the pre-eminent French painter of his era. Imbuing classical subjects with erotic Victorian flair, Mr. Bouguereau updated antiquity; and he flattered his female sitters, whatever their true nature, idealizing them with grace, charm and beauty. ...
Mr. Bouguereau worked in an overarching, nearly hyperrealistic manner after Raphael, and his illustrative paintings of coy, angelic, soft-focus nudes, women and children, posed melodramatically in ethereal settings, entice with manicured detail. But lacking form and rhythm, and convincing only in passages, they amount to a cloying coquettishness. The ...catalogue raisonné ...
[attempts] to debunk the derision and re-establish Mr. Bouguereau alongside Raphael, Rembrandt and Titian. But his reappearance reveals more about contemporary taste and social psychology than artistic talent.


In all fairness,  we should listen to Bouguereau's fans. Today interest in  Bouguereau has revived, and some of his paintings have fetched in excess of a million dollars at auction. Here are the words of Damien Bartoli (1947-2009)*:

"William Bouguereau is unquestionably one of history's greatest artistic geniuses. Yet in the past century, his reputation and unparalleled accomplishments have undergone a libelous, dishonest, relentless and systematic assault of immense proportions. His name was stricken from most history texts and when included it was only to blindly, degrade and disparage him and his work. Yet, as we shall see, it was he who single handedly opened the French academies to women, and it was he who was arguably the greatest painter of the human figure in all of art history. His figures come to life like no previous artist has ever before or ever since achieved. He wasn't just the best ever at painting human anatomy, more importantly he captured the tender and subtlest nuances of personality and mood. Bouguereau caught the very souls and spirits of his subjects much like Rembrandt. Rembrandt is said to have captured the soul of age. Bouguereau captured the soul of youth.

Considering his consummate level of skill and craft, and the fact that the great preponderance of his works are life-size, it is one of the largest bodies of work ever produced by any artist. Add to that the fact that fully half of these paintings are great masterpieces, and we have the picture of an artist who belongs like Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Carravaggio, in the top ranks of only a handful of masters in the entire history of western art.


You can see lots of Bouguereau here. And below are a couple of paintings I like. 

"The Story Book" (1877)





"Bacchante on a Panther", has a classical theme. Panthers were associated with a certain kind of revelry in antiquity.




It is possible that Bouguereau rises above his defenders, in stature, even if just by a little. And speaking of his fans, here is wee update:

*  Damien Bartoli, the Bouguereau biographer, who worked with ARC Chairman, Fred Ross M.A. and Dr. Vern Swanson to produce the first comprehensive Catalogue Raisonné on William Bouguereau passed away in mid-December [2009].
Mr. Bartoli worked tirelessly on the Bouguereau Catalogue Raisonné project from the very beginning until last July, when content for the 30-year effort was handed over to our co publisher for final layout and printing.
He continued to work with Mr. Ross on other projects... until the day before he died, apparently from a heart attack while driving from Paris to Belgium.
We have lost a great friend and colleague. Our hearts go out to his wife, Martine and their two children, Xavier and Laetitia.

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