Palm Beach, FL – French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 – 1905) is widely admired for his delicate figure studies that capture even the most subtle human emotions. Immensely popular in both Europe and America during his lifetime, Bouguereau became one of the most prolific and influential artists of the nineteenth century, and is today widely recognized as one of the art world’s great painters. Bouguereau’s ‘Fancies’, organized by the Flagler Museum, will feature mythological and allegorical paintings and drawings spanning the artist’s entire career, as well as popular contemporary reproductions of his works in print, porcelain, marble, and bronze.

 

Educated at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, Bouguereau quickly rose to a place of honor and leadership in the art world. He received numerous prizes for his work, including the Prix de Rome and the médaille de première classe at the French Salon, and held honors such as election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l’Institut de France, presidency of the Société des peintres, sculpteurs, architects et graveurs, and Grand Officier of the Légion d’honneur. Bouguereau was also an important teacher and supporter of younger artists.

 

Bouguereau was a man of his time, creating painterly expressions of Enlightenment thought. His works embody values such as equality, charity, and respect for the humanity and dignity of mankind. Some of his most popular works depict noble peasants, particularly young women and children. His paintings are more than just exacting figure studies however; Bouguereau sought to convey intense emotion and meaning through his figures.

 

Mythology and fantasy were also favorite subjects of Bouguereau – he referred to these works as his “fancies” – and he often populated his paintings with attractive nymphs, cupids, satyrs, and toga-clad men and women. The artist also often chose to elevate figure studies to allegorical works, which provided the opportunity to embody his audience’s aspirations or values in a single, beautifully portrayed figure or group of figures. He revisited figural compositions depicting “charity,” for example, throughout his career. While mythological and allegorical subjects enhanced the appeal of his figures to the public, they also provided Bouguereau with endless opportunities to create beautifully painted and charming human figures.

 

Bouguereau’s ‘Fancies’ will include nineteen superb examples of Bouguereau’s mythological and allegorical subjects, including a number of life-sized Salon paintings, plus related works. A highlight of the exhibition will be the display together, for the first time ever, of three versions of the artist’s Jeune fille se défendant contre l’Amour [Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros]. Created in 1880 for the annual French Salon, the full-sized version of this subject- a girl chastely resisting first love -was once owned by Henry Flagler and hung at Whitehall (now the Flagler Museum), and is currently in the collection of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The Salon version will be united in the exhibition with the artist’s reduction of the subject, once owned by Henry Flagler’s friend Henry Walters of Baltimore and lent by the J. Paul Getty Museum, as well as a chalk and gouache drawing of the same subject from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. This historic exhibition of all three versions will provide the opportunity to examine Bouguereau’s artistic process in detail.

 

The exhibition will also examine the rise and fall in the market for Bouguereau’s work. While Bouguereau’s paintings were eagerly collected by the wealthy, new commercial reproduction methods provided more affordable versions, contributing to the artist’s popularity. Bouguereau’s paintings and drawings were quickly reproduced on plates, plaques, boxes, fabric, buttons, and as prints in books and folios. Bouguereau painted smaller copies of his large paintings – called reductions – for commercial reasons, to help meet the demand for his paintings and to facilitate the creation of engraved reproductions of his work. The monochromatic San Francisco drawing of Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros, for example, was created for reproduction of the painting in black and white.

 

Bouguereau’s work was enthusiastically sought by Europeans, but many of the artist’s most dedicated fans were in North America. Gilded Age American collectors of Bouguereau and their interest in French academic art will be highlighted in the exhibition. Henry Flagler, like many of his contemporaries, was an avid collector of French academic art.

 

With the rise of Modernism at the close of the nineteenth century, however, Bouguereau’s reputation declined, along with that of the Academic tradition. Criticized with other realists as old-fashioned and sentimental, Bouguereau went from being a household name in his lifetime to being virtually forgotten after World War I. In recent decades, however, Bouguereau’s reputation has been rehabilitated, as tastes in art have changed and scholars and collectors again appreciate realist art. Bouguereau is again recognized as one of the great painters of the figure, exceptional in his ability to portray the human spirit.

 

Bouguereau’s ‘Fancies’: Allegorical and MythologicalWorks by the French Master has been organized by the Flagler Museum. A brochure will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

 

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jeune fille se défendant contre l’Amour [Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros], oil on canvas, 1880. The University of North Carolina at Wilmington. This painting was owned by Henry Flagler and displayed in the Music Room at Whitehall, now the Flagler Museum.

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