Bouguereau’s fanciesAllegorical and Mythological Works by the French Master

FLAGLER MUSEUMh e n r y m o r r i s o n

palm beach, florida

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905), L’Art et la Littérature [Art and Literature], 1867, oil on canvas, 78 ¾” x 42 ½”. Collection of the Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York USA, Museum Purchase, 1977.

French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 - 1905), one of the most important and commercially successful painters of the nineteenth century, became famous for his charming and refined paintings characterized by idyllic or sentimental subjects, masterful technique, and a great appreciation for feminine beauty. Born in the Atlantic seaport of La Rochelle, France, Bouguereau was the son of a wine and olive oil merchant. The boy seemed better suited to drawing than the family business, so he enrolled in Bordeaux’s École Municipale de Dessin et de Peinture at age 16. Five years later, in 1846, Bouguereau entered the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The young artist’s academic training reinforced his love for antiquity and the classical tradition. In 1850, Bouguereau was a winner of the competitive Prix de Rome, which enabled him to spend three years studying at the Villa Medici. This period of intense study of ancient and Renaissance art at its source greatly influenced his work.

At the École des Beaux-Arts, Bouguereau received instruction that adhered to the traditional standards put forth by the French Academy, which prioritized drawing from life and the study of antiquity. Historical subjects were among those considered the most worthy, including mythology and religion. While Bouguereau is best known for genre subjects, or scenes of everyday life, historical themes pervade his work. Even a simple figure study, for example, could be transformed by the artist, through idealization and the addition of antique trappings, into a subject that conveyed intense emotion and meaning.

Early in his career, Bouguereau received several decorative commissions for which he executed complex mythological and allegorical schemes reflecting his academic training. The subject matter of the artist’s monumental easel painting L’Art et la Littérature [Art and Literature] (1867, Arnot Art Museum) similarly employs iconic and noble muses representing the arts residing in an Arcadian land.

Mythology and fantasy were 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 set in a Greco-Roman antiquity. Jeune fille se défendant contre l’Amour [Young Girl

Defending Herself Against Eros] (1880, The University of North Carolina at Wilmington) is such a work, providing a light allegorical message of a girl playfully resisting young or first love. Cupid’s twisted movement and the tension between the two figures masterfully convey a popular classical theme, the Triumph of Love. Secrets de l’Amour [Cupid’s Secrets] (1896, Frank and Coya Levy), another of Bouguereau’s “fancies,” is typical of the artist’s charming and intimate figural works made more evocative by their ancient fantasyland setting.

Like many of his artistic predecessors and peers, Bouguereau frequently attached allegorical meaning to his figural paintings; that is, he utilized figures and their actions to convey universal human values or beliefs such as equality, brotherly love, and the nobility of the arts. Bouguereau often revisited compositions depicting “charity,” for example, and such works place the artist within a long Western tradition of depicting allegorical subjects. Through his iconic composition and choice of costume, Bouguereau created an intentional reference to the Virgin Mary in an early depiction of La Charité [Charity] (1859, University of Michigan Museum of Art), thus communicating a connection between secular and sacred motherhood. Though he lived in what has been considered a rather materialistic society, Bouguereau’s largely optimistic expressions of the basic values of hope, happiness, love, and piety charmed his audience.

While mythological and allegorical content enhanced the appeal of his figures to the public, they also provided Bouguereau with endless opportunities to create beautifully painted human figure studies. La Nuit [Night] (1883, Hillwood Estate, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905), Secrets de l’Amour [Cupid’s Secrets], 1896, oil on

canvas, 51 1/8” x 36”. Frank and Coya Levy.

Museum & Gardens) is one of a series Bouguereau created between 1881 and 1884 depicting the four times of day - including Le Jour [Day], L’Aurore [Dawn], and Le Crépuscle [Dusk] - embodied in the form of life-sized, partially nude female figures. La Nuit, a brilliantly simple execution of the concept of the coming night, depicts a sensuous nude woman, draped in billowing darkness, floating over a seacoast accompanied by nighttime creatures such as bats and owls. A tour de force of allegorical representation, this series was very well received by the public and quickly passed from Bouguereau’s dealers into American collections.

Hard work and great talent earned Bouguereau respect, but it was the artist’s dealers (first Durand-Ruel and later Goupil & Cie.) who helped propel Bouguereau to great fame worldwide, recognizing the interest in his work abroad and supplying a network to satisfy it. Throughout Bouguereau’s lifetime America was the primary market for his work, either through dealers or direct commissions. In the 1860s, the first generation of American collectors began to devote large sums of money to buying art and supporting arts institutions. Those who possessed the disposable income to amass large art collections, such as industrialist Henry Flagler, developed a taste for French academic art and, in particular, Bouguereau’s idealized and comprehensible subjects. Bouguereau’s studio also became a popular stopping place for Americans on the Grand Tour.

Like many of his peers, Henry Flagler appreciated and collected French William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905), La Charité [Charity], 1859, oil on canvas, 45 7/8” x 35 3/8”.

University of Michigan Museum of Art, Bequest of Henry C. Lewis, 1895.96

academic art. A number of academic works were used to decorate Whitehall, Flagler’s Palm Beach mansion (now the Flagler Museum). A highlight of the collection was Bouguereau’s Jeune fille se défendant contre l’Amour, displayed prominently in the Music Room when Henry and Mary Lily Flagler lived there. Among the first American collectors of Bouguereau’s work were August Belmont, Samuel P. Avery, William T. Walters, A.T. Stewart, and coffee importer Colonel J. Stricker Jenkins of Baltimore, who commissioned L’Art et la Littérature.

Bouguereau worked tirelessly throughout his career and was devoted to his art, explaining that: “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 next morning to come…if I cannot give myself to my dear painting I am miserable.” Despite the fact that he was extremely prolific, producing more than 700 finished works of art during his career, Bouguereau was unable to keep up with the demand for his work. Reproductions of his important paintings – as reductions, prints, porcelain plaques, sculptures, and decorative objects – helped broaden the audience for Bouguereau and satisfy those eager for his work worldwide.

Jeune fille se défendant contre l’Amour, for example, became extremely popular and was widely distributed. On display together in this exhibition for the first time are three versions of the subject: the full-sized Salon version (formerly owned by Henry Flagler), the artist’s reduction (1880, once owned by Henry Flagler’s friends Mr. and Mrs. Henry Walters, now in the collection of The J. Paul Getty Museum) and a drawing of the subject (Love’s Resistance, 1885, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco). The two copies of the Salon painting were created by the artist to aid in the commercial reproduction of the work. Jeune fille was ultimately reproduced for distribution all over the world in prints, photographs, postcards, books, and even on buttons for clothing. In fact, most of the works by Bouguereau included in this exhibition were commercially reproduced during the artist’s lifetime.

Bouguereau suffered from heart disease at the end of his life and by 1903 it was nearly impossible for him to work. Bouguereau died on August 19, 1905, at La Rochelle, the place of his birth. Widely respected by his fellow artists and students during his lifetime, Bouguereau won almost every award and honor available to an artist. In 1876, Bouguereau was elected to the l’Institut de

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905), La Nuit [Night], 1883, oil on canvas, 82” x 42 ½”. Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973 (51.12), Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

Bouguereau’s fancies has been organized by the Flagler Museum, on view January 27 through April 19, 2015.

© Flagler Museum.

Bouguereau’s fancies is sponsored by:

The EliasbergFamily Foundation

The Mosaic Foundation(of R. & P. Heydon)

France, and in 1883, he became president of the Société des peintres, sculpteurs, architects et graveurs, a benevolent association that provided financial assistance to artists and their families. In 1859, Bouguereau was named Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, the highest honor in France, and in 1903 he was named a Grand Officier.

With the rise of Modernism at the close of the nineteenth century, however, the taste for Bouguereau’s work declined along with diminished interest in the academic tradition. Criticized with other academic artists 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 is being rehabilitated as tastes in art have changed and scholars and collectors rediscover realist art. Today Bouguereau is once again recognized as one of the great painters of the figure, exceptional in his ability to portray the human body and spirit.

Thomas S. Kenan III

Right: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905), Loves Resistance (after Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros), 1885, black chalk and opaque watercolor, 17 15/16” x 12 5/8”. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum Purchase, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Endowment Fund, 1971.19.

Front cover: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905), Jeune fille se défendant contre l’Amour [Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros], 1880, oil on canvas, 63 3/8” x 44 7/8”. The University of North Carolina at Wilmington.