Lot Essay
Bouguereau was one of the foremost advocates of "Pompier" painting and like others in this elite group of artists he believed that pictures should promote civic messages such as purity and hope. He used the subject of young children as vehicles through which to convey these ideals to his audience. As with many of these depictions, the picture "A Young Beauty" shows the tender treatment of expression for which his works were admired. The model was a favorite of the artist. She appears in several paintings: the 1886 "Bergère" (Springfield Museum), the 1889 "Petit Bergère" (Philbrook Art Center), the 1890 "Beggar Girls" (Syracuse University) and the 1890 "Bohemian" (The Minneapolis Institute of Arts). According to Mark Steven Walker it was Bouguereau's practice to hire a model for a month at a time, not only to sit for him but also to live with the family and help around the home with chores. This would account, therefore, for the repetition of faces in his pictures (M. S. Walker, William Bouguereau, exh. cat., Montreal, 1984, p. 239).
In "A Young Girl," Bouguereau depicts the anonymous model with chromatic richness that is suggestive of Raphael's influence. The white of her blouse and the neutral background contrasts with the deep blue of her dress and darks of her hair to perfectly frame her face. Unlike the other paintings using this model that are mentioned above, "A Young Girl" focuses only on the head of the figure. By painting only the face and pushing the image to the forefront of the picture Bouguereau is able to present us with a psychological study of the girl without the distractions present in his full-length depictions. Her expression is slightly pensive and rendered in an almost photographic manner. The lifelike quality of the picture is partially achieved through the tilt of the model's head and it shows Bouguereau applying the principles of static and dynamic form that is a trademark of his standing compositions. Bouguereau's contemporaries would have understood the text of "A Young Girl" as being more than just the simple portrait that a cursory glance might indicate. Instead, it would have represented a life of purity and simplicity far removed from the truth of their lives in an industrial era.
In "A Young Girl," Bouguereau depicts the anonymous model with chromatic richness that is suggestive of Raphael's influence. The white of her blouse and the neutral background contrasts with the deep blue of her dress and darks of her hair to perfectly frame her face. Unlike the other paintings using this model that are mentioned above, "A Young Girl" focuses only on the head of the figure. By painting only the face and pushing the image to the forefront of the picture Bouguereau is able to present us with a psychological study of the girl without the distractions present in his full-length depictions. Her expression is slightly pensive and rendered in an almost photographic manner. The lifelike quality of the picture is partially achieved through the tilt of the model's head and it shows Bouguereau applying the principles of static and dynamic form that is a trademark of his standing compositions. Bouguereau's contemporaries would have understood the text of "A Young Girl" as being more than just the simple portrait that a cursory glance might indicate. Instead, it would have represented a life of purity and simplicity far removed from the truth of their lives in an industrial era.