A
French painter, born in La Rochelle in 1825, Bouguereau
studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and was awarded the
Grand Prix de Rome in 1850. His favourite subjects were
scenes from mythology and allegorical religious and genre
themes, which he rendered in the glossy, pseudo-classic
style that was favoured by the academic painters of his
time. With the advent of Impressionism at the end of the
19th century, his stylised, sentimental paintings were
rejected by the public and critics alike, though his style,
with an extreme eclecticism and slick, almost photographic
realism is highly respected. Bouguereau was one of the
key supporters of The Salon, the first official art exhibition
held in France and limited to members of the Royal Academy.
The term Salon derived from the Salon d'Apollon, in the
Louvre, where the annual exhibitions were first held.
Until the 19th century the limited number of artists who
were allowed to show at these salon exhibitions had a
monopoly on publicity and sales of art. After his death
in 1905, his work was all but forgotten for many years.
Later his paintings were returned to view as part of a
renewed interest in academic painting and of Ecole des
Beaux-Arts works in general.
|
All
images are for sale.
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
| Click
on BUY to purchase the posters, or ENLARGE
it to help you make up your mind. |
|
|
