\paperw4995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 French painter.\par
A painter greatly appreciated by nineteenth-century collectors in Europe and America, William Bouguereau was one
of the fiercest defenders of the refined and idealized style of painting taught in the academies, in open controversy with the work that was being produced by Impressionist artists in the same years. Born in 1825, Bouguereau attended the Academy of Franc
e in Rome, where he stayed from 1850 to 1854. As well as by classical art, the painter was influenced by Giotto and the masters of the Renaissance. The fruit of these experiences can be seen in the picture of \i Saint Cecilia in the Catacomb\i0 , painted
in 1854 and now in the LunΘville Museum. Paintings of religious subjects in a classicist style make up much of the artistÆs output, and he also decorated a number of churches in Paris, including St. Augustine and Ste. Clotilde. However, Bouguereau also
proved to be a skillful narrator of episodes from contemporary history, such as the picture of \i Napoleon Visiting the Victims at Tarascon\i0 (Tarascon, H⌠tel-de-Ville), dating from 1856. The solemn tone of his early paintings grew lighter and more che
erful in his mature works, which often depict mythological themes. The canvas depicting the \i Nymph and the Satyr\i0 , in Williamstown, dates from 1873, while the \i Youth of Bacchus\i0 was painted in 1884. The compositions, pretexts for the representa
tion of idealized and sensual nudes well-suited to the restrained tastes of his bourgeois clientele, are given a light-hearted and playful air through the frequent insertion of cherubs and cupids. An example of this genre is the painting of \i The\i0
\i Birth of Venus\i0 , one of the most popular subjects among the academic painters of the second half of the century. Bouguereau painted the picture in 1879. The harmonious nude of the figure of Venus appears to be a reinterpretation of the models of anci
ent sculpture in terms of the teachings of Ingres and the Italian Renaissance painters. Bouguereau treats the mythological subject in a fairly original manner, picturing the goddess emerging from the sea in the company of a group of dancing Tritons and N
ereids. The grace of BouguereauÆs figures, the harmony of his compositions and the charm of his subjects earned the artist the post of professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which he held until 1888. He died in 1905.
