In this second and last installment of gallery talks that I did related to William-Adolphe Bouguereau, I look at the artist’s interest in depicting genre scenes of young shepherdesses and his dedicated use of Italian models in his work.
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William-Adolphe Bouguereau, The Shepherdess, 1889 (detail) |
Not only did art studios have hierarchies in the nineteenth century, but so did types of paintings themselves. Some were considered “high art”—others low. The lowest were still lifes, paintings of objects; landscapes ranked a bit higher, and portraits even higher than that. After portraits were genre paintings, and at the very top were history paintings, of mythological, religious, or historical subject matter, usually with a moral or other intellectual message (reword).Genre paintings (views of every day life) were considerably more profitable for a painter than history paintings, which tended to do exceedingly well in the Salon (link), but not as well commercially. History paintings were traditionally huge canvases and not well suited for hanging in one’s living room.
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| William-Adolphe Bouguereau, The Shepherdess, 1889 |
Bouguereau’s Shepherdesses
However, particularly for academic artists, the definition of “every day life” for some of their subjects seems a bit broad. Bouguereau in particular was not the most realistic depictor of the characters in his genre scenes, especially his peasant shepherdesses, above. While his paintings are high in realistic rendering—rendering that is, in fact, even too realistic—the subjects are all highly idealized and perfected. These shepherd girls are beautiful, clean-footed, dressed in unfashionable but intact, clean clothes, and sport noble, solemn expressions.
Many of Bouguereau’s shepherdesses, like the one to the left, confront the viewer with a confident gaze, and this girl is no different. Her pose is strong and dynamic, full of angles, and she meets the viewer’s eyes unapologetically.
The Women Behind the Painting
Artists summered in more rural areas outside of Paris, where they would engage in plein-air painting that would help with the larger canvases they created in the fall. In these areas, artists frequently hired local girls as models, and at a time when noble peasants were in high demand from commercial collectors, what could be better than the real thing? (Except, of course, in Bouguereau’s case, a highly perfected, idealized version of the real thing—which, he might argue, would made the thing more real.)
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| William-Adolphe Bouguereau, The Donkey Ride, 1884 |
Bouguereau summered in La Rochelle, where he hired young Italian girls not only as models, but as housekeepers. Paid 300 francs a month by the artist, they would reside with him and do his chores between modeling sessions. He allowed them to bring their children, if they had any, and would sketch them too, often painting them, as in the painting to the right. He brought sketches back in the fall, painted the larger canvases, and would sell them to (usually American) collectors when they were done.
Bouguereau’s Influence: Delobbe and the Peasant
Delobbe was a regular contributor to the Salon and a student of Bouguereau’s, whose work very closely resembles his master’s. Because this Frenchman never moved away from Paris (like many of Bouguereau’s students, particularly the American ones), their style and subject matter remained remarkably similar. So similar, in fact, that one of Delobbe’s paintings—see left—was mistaken for a Bouguereau; someone even signed Bouguereau’s name in the left hand corner.
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| Francois Alfred Delobbe, Italian Peasant Family, undated (1890s-1900s?) |
The painting to the left is one that was inspired by a painting of his master’s, above left, but the two differ greatly. Both clearly show the same scene: a peasant family making their way back from a harvest. But Bouguereau’s is more overtly religious, both Pagan in its depiction of a Bacchanalian dance around the family and its donkey, and also Christian, with the crowned baby boy riding on a donkey, all eyes in the painting on him.
Delobbe’s version, meanwhile, is more domestic and even truer to life, though it is idealized. The brush is looser, rougher, and though there are still Christian overtones, it sheds the tiniest hint of the true life of the peasant—a simple journey on a rough road, blurred into atmospheric perspective; the smaller group of people; the calm feeling of the small painting. Bouguereau’s influence is still present, but the hold of the strict Academic ideals seems to be loosening as time continues on.
Wow! I am impressed. Maybe I should’ve come to your talk. Sounds like it wasn’t boring at all. Silly me! Although you do realize I might have blurted out a “THAT’S MY BABY’. WTG Chels, as always you continue to make me so proud. Big hugs from Mawmy.
Excellent post as always, thanks for posting all this helpful content on a regular basis.