For a 6-week seminar I just finished, our final project was a presentation on a pre-assigned artwork in the Hispanic Society of America, a wonderful little museum in Spanish Harlem (and the subject of a post I’m working on). Rather than get immediately started on my work in the library, as midterms loom, I’d much rather post my own presentation on this blog! Read on…

El Greco, St. Jerome, c. 1600
Hispanic Society of America
(Read On…)

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.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, The Shepherdess, 1889 (detail)

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Whisperings of Love, 1889 (detail

The museum where I’m interning this summer currently has a special exhibit about William-Adolphe Bouguereau, a 19th century French painter who was immensely popular in his own time, fell out of favor, and recently has been semi-revived in interest among art historians. Personally, although his work isn’t exactly the ‘deepest’ stuff I’ve ever seen by far, I think his work is just BEAUTIFUL. I’m giving two gallery talks about Bouguereau (pronounced BOH-gheh-roh), and wanted to type up what I’ll likely be saying for my first one, this upcoming Friday the 20th. This will end up being longer than the tour I’m giving, and also longer than the usual size of this blog’s posts, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it anyway. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
(Read On…)