Everyone has an opinion about which artists possess greatness.
For me it's Bouguereau.


I will not go into his biography such as where he was born,
nor will I tell you where he studied or with whom.
You can find all this information on the world wide web.
You will find a link at the bottom of this page.
What I will offer you here is an insight as to what made him great.
His paintings speak for themselves. Let them touch your heart.

The page is graphic intensive. Will load progressively.

"Each day I go to my studio full of joy; in the evening when obliged to stop
because of darkness I can scarcely wait for the morning to come...
My work is not only a pleasure, it has become a necessity.
No matter how many other things I have in my life,
if I cannot give myself to my dear painting I am miserable."

Adolphe-William Bouguereau

 

 

One is born an artist. The artist is a man endowed with a special nature, with a particular feeling for seeing form and color spontaneously, as a whole, in perfect harmony. If one lacks that feeling, one is not an artist and will never become an artist; and it is a waste of time to entertain the possibility. This craft is acquired through study, observation, and practice; it can improve by ceaseless work. But the instinct for art is innate. First, one has to love nature with all one's heart and soul, and be able to study and admire it for hours on end. Everything is in nature. A plant, a leaf, a blade of grass should be the subjects of infinite and fruitful meditations; for the artist, a cloud floating in the sky has form, and the form affords him joy, helps him think."

 

"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."

 

The tenderness with which he portrayed children and domestic scenes, his technical skill and passion for the classics, and his love of rich color are hallmarks of Bouguereau's exquisite paintings

 

In painting, I'm an idealist.
I see only the beautiful in art and, for me,
art is the beautiful.
Why reproduce what is ugly in nature?
I don't see why it should be necessary.
Painting what one sees just as it is,
no -- or at least, not unless one
is immensely gifted.
Talent is all-redeeming
and can excuse anything

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Paint as you see and be accurate in your drawing: the whole secret of your art is there.

If you want to draw and model effectively, you have to see all of the details as well as the whole at the same time."

He sketches broadly with an extraordinarily unerring eye and hand, completing a "piece" at one sitting, with no retouching, and painting a life-size figure in eight days at the most.

 

"One of the more

useful tricks

for getting the

overall feeling

of a painting,

is to blink

your eyes

while looking

at the model."

 
Some of Bouguereau's drawings were rendered with the aid of an optical device known as the chambre claire. This instrument, by means of prisms, allowed the tracing of a subject's outlines, as observed by the artist, directly onto a drawing board. Used as an artist might use a photograph today, the chambre claire permitted the artist to readily and quickly reproduce certain details of nature which could be used later in the studio as details in a painting.

 

 

 

"I produce a lot because I work all day long, without any breaks. It is the only way in fact of achieving good work. Often I find the desired gestures for my figures immediately; in that case, my painting is quickly completed.

If, on the other hand, things don't go the way I want, I put the canvas aside for a day or two and wait till I feel better disposed. I never work on one picture only but have three or four in progress in my studio; that way, if a model doesn't turn up one day, I don't have to sit around with my hands in my pockets, I can work on the others.''

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bouguereau never mentions a specific palette,
but Moreau-Vauthier is again helpful in this regard;
he gives it as:

Naples Yellow (lead antimonate)
Yellow-Ochre
Chrome Yellow, dark
Viridian
Cobalt Blue
White Lead
Light Vermilion
Chinese Vermilion
Mars Brown (iron oxide); this available from Lefranc & Bourgeois Van Dyck Brown
Burnt Sienna
Ivory Black
Bitumen
Genuine Rose Madder, dark

 

When painting, Bouguereau almost always made last minute changes, despite the extensive preliminaries and the fact that his original drawing was unalterably inked upon the ground. If one looks closely at The Education of Bacchus numerous adjustments made in the final stages of execution become apparent; hardly a single figure has been left unmodified from the original plan. The obsession with perfection left the painter little peace:

 

"Starting a new picture is very pleasant, for you always believe that this time you're going to create a masterpiece; you take pains, and little by little the painting takes shape, the effect comes through. You feel marvelous sensations
.
When it's done, however, things are different. You want to touch up the arm, the movement of the body doesn't seem graceful.., and you end up doing nothing, for fear of having to redo the whole thing completely."

"It is a workroom, that's all."

Judging from photographs of the painter in his studio, Bouguereau appears to have used the standard round and flat white bristle brushes commonly used for oil painting (fig. 14). Lovis Corinth observed that the artist generally preferred wide brushes. He also used a palette knife for scumbling color into landscape passages and, for painting fine details, a mahl stick.

Bouguereau said of his atelier:

 

 

"Alongside his mastery of line, Bouguereau utilizes tone relationships with commanding authority. Harmony of dark and light tones is of first importance in a painting.It is even more crucial than color since tone arrangement must underlie every color scheme.Color or hue cannot exist without value. Painters often say that any color scheme will suffice if the values are harmoniously conceived. Bouguereau's handsome value harmonies are like music of great beauty and subtlety .... An... ingenious use of light and shadow is seen in the celebrated "Nymphes et satyre." The figure grasping the left arm of the satyr is backlit with strong reflected light pouring into the shadow side of the head and shoulders, posing one of the most difficult problems for the draftsman. A head of this sort must be modeled with a minimum of tone contrast in order to oppose those passages in the light that are fully modeled. Once again, Bouguereau succeeds with consumate authority."

Nymphes et satyre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Perhaps the largest volume of Bouguereau's work is secular and even sexual. He includes many themes from mythology especially of cupid who comes in the form of Bacchus, and Eros. The artists who followed the traditions of the French Salon were allowed to display their love of the female form, but only if put into an acceptable context such as mythology.

 

 

 

 

Bouguereau had a fascination with mothers and children; he rarely painted fathers with their children. Perhaps this interest can be seen in two themes. Bouguereau was very close to his mother. As well, he was a deeply religious man. Painting mothers with their children could have been both a manifestation of his own adoration for his mother, as well as (as most blatantly are) depictions of the Madonna and child. With a father who moved the family around from job to job, and who was unsupporting of his son's career choice, it's easy to see how Bouguereau could have developed such a closeness to his own mother. She often interceded between Bouguereau and his father to allay her husband's disapproval.

 

 
Bouguereau died himself in 1905 "When the grand old man felt his last hour had come, he gathered his family around him, dictated his last will and testament, and spoke to them. Then he said, "Tell the priest to come now." To the priest
he said:
"I'm going to meet my God. What shall I tell him? That I have sinned? Yes, and throughout a long life. What shall he answer?" "That he has forgiven you," replied the minister of God, "for by the tears in your eyes, I can see you have repented." "Then give your absolution to the prodigal son who has returned so late but comes back sincerely to his God. Mark on my body the sign of divine forgiveness." And proffering his trembling hands to the holy oil, he said: "I repent for the sins these hands have committed, for the world and its vanities." The priest anointed him with the holy oil, and the dying man cried out in a trembling voice, "Amen." He repeated the word as his feet were anointed, asking forgiveness for all the wrong steps they had taken, even on the path to glory. He repeated the word again, closing the eyes that had so often known visions of genius and that also had to be forgiven for looking upon sinful things. "Amen!" he cried, "Amen!"
-from The Bulletin Religieux du Diocèse

 

One of Bouguereau's favourite themes was that of the spring or well, traditional symbols of purity and spirituality, and the eternal cycle of life. At The Fountain was painted in La Rochelle, Bouguereau's ancestral village, during his summer holiday there, at a time when, freed from many of his obligations, he had taken to retreating more often from the rigours of Paris. This was for him a "Holiday Picture" painted with much love and attention to detail as were his grand studio compositions executed in Paris. He considered this painting as being one of his best, both in terms of composition and execution, which he very much enjoyed painting.
Bouguereau completed over 700 works in his career.
  

 

To really appreciate the works of Adolphe-William Bouguereau,
one must vist a museum and see it with your own eyes and to feel it with your heart.

http://www.artrenewal.org/museum/b/Bouguereau_William/bio.html

http://www.artrenewal.org/index.html