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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.
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