Bouguereau, Adolphe-William

(1825-1905)

   painter

   Born in La Rochelle, William Bouguereau, who won the Prix de Rome in 1830, was an admirer of Raphael and, thus like Alexandre cabanel, sought to maintain strict academic principles for the salon, the official venue for the exhibition of works of art. He painted meticulous portraits and received commissions to decorate the Grand-Théâtre of bordeaux and the churches of Saint-Augustin and Sainte-Clotilde in paris. There, the influence of the pre-Raphaelites on his work is apparent (Vierge consolatrice, 1877). Bouguereau, above all, painted allegorical and mythological compositions, with subdued tones and smooth surfaces portraying, for example, in an "archeo-logic" style, pale female nudes (Les Oréades; Bacchante sur une panthère). Both Bouguereau's critics and supporters saw him as a leading exponent of academism and, in his time, he was highly respected; for the impressionists, however, he represented insipid bourgeois taste.