Lot Essay
In 1857, Bouguereau was commissioned by the Parisian banker, Parliamentarian and railroad industrialist Emile Pereire to paint two rooms of decorative cycles for the Hôtel Pereire on the rue du Faubourg-St. Honoré. It was the second private commission Bouguereau received (the first was the Hôtel Bartholony on the rue de Verneuil), and its anticipated completion moved critic Théophile Gautier to write that the paintings "will render the two rooms the most sumptuous in the world." (see L. Baschet, p.15). The decorative program for the first room of the Hôtel Pereire was based on the four seasons, including the goddesses and attributes appropriate to each. The second scheme more loosely played on the theme of day and night --the subject of the ceiling panel-- and also included the Triumph of Venus, the Sleep of Endymion, Child on a Griffin, and Child on a Seamonster as wall panels.
The Triumph of Venus shows the goddess floating over the ocean on her hippocampi-drawn chariot, attended by an air-born Cupid, as well as a nereid (sea-nymph) and tritons (mermen). Bouguereau distinguishes Venus in her glory, and not at the moment of her birth from the sea, by showing her draped in wind-blown veils. Her figure resembles that of Fortune, one of Bouguereau's panels for the Hôtel Bartholony, as well as Ingres' Vénus Anadyomène (fig.1) (1807-1848; Musée Condé, Chantilly), which was circulated in print form by Réveil in 1851. Yet while Ingres presented the goddess in frieze-like frontality, Bouguereau created an elegant flurry of excitement in the shallow space through a complexity of rolling curves, all crowned by the sinuous movement of the goddess' upswept arms and billowing veils.
The composition also bears remarkable affinities to Raphael's The Triumph of Galatea. Bouguereau knew the painting well, as he had copied and sent it back to Paris as part of his fulfillment of the Prix de Rome. Yet unlike Raphael, who in High Renaissance style painted the triumphant Galatea in a naturalistic seascape, Bouguereau set the scene against a patterned gold background that both emphasizes the lines of the figures and the decorative intent of the picture.
Affinities with the work of Raphael and Ingres were not lost on contemporary critics, although they lauded Bouguereau for adapting his art to modern tastes: "M. Bouguereau has a natural instinct for the science of contours. He is preoccupied by the eurythmy of the human body, and in recalling the happy results of which, in this genre, the old masters and 19th century artists have come together, one can't but congratulate M. Bouguereau in following in their footsteps.... The grace, the elegance, the delightful curves, the harmonious lines are timeless, and applause is waiting for the artist who brings these neglected qualities to contemporary art. Raphael was inspired by the ancient arabesques...and no one accused him of being unoriginal. Accordingly, in taking Raphael as his point of departure, M. Bouguereau shows that modern sentiment can be encorporated into older styles." (Clément de Ris, op. cit. Baschet, p.15).
We are grateful to Louise d'Argencourt and Damien Bartoli for assisting in the cataloguing of this painting.
Fig. 1: J.-A.-D. Ingres, Vénus Anadyomène, Musée Condé, Chantilly
Photo credit: Lauros-Giraudon
The Triumph of Venus shows the goddess floating over the ocean on her hippocampi-drawn chariot, attended by an air-born Cupid, as well as a nereid (sea-nymph) and tritons (mermen). Bouguereau distinguishes Venus in her glory, and not at the moment of her birth from the sea, by showing her draped in wind-blown veils. Her figure resembles that of Fortune, one of Bouguereau's panels for the Hôtel Bartholony, as well as Ingres' Vénus Anadyomène (fig.1) (1807-1848; Musée Condé, Chantilly), which was circulated in print form by Réveil in 1851. Yet while Ingres presented the goddess in frieze-like frontality, Bouguereau created an elegant flurry of excitement in the shallow space through a complexity of rolling curves, all crowned by the sinuous movement of the goddess' upswept arms and billowing veils.
The composition also bears remarkable affinities to Raphael's The Triumph of Galatea. Bouguereau knew the painting well, as he had copied and sent it back to Paris as part of his fulfillment of the Prix de Rome. Yet unlike Raphael, who in High Renaissance style painted the triumphant Galatea in a naturalistic seascape, Bouguereau set the scene against a patterned gold background that both emphasizes the lines of the figures and the decorative intent of the picture.
Affinities with the work of Raphael and Ingres were not lost on contemporary critics, although they lauded Bouguereau for adapting his art to modern tastes: "M. Bouguereau has a natural instinct for the science of contours. He is preoccupied by the eurythmy of the human body, and in recalling the happy results of which, in this genre, the old masters and 19th century artists have come together, one can't but congratulate M. Bouguereau in following in their footsteps.... The grace, the elegance, the delightful curves, the harmonious lines are timeless, and applause is waiting for the artist who brings these neglected qualities to contemporary art. Raphael was inspired by the ancient arabesques...and no one accused him of being unoriginal. Accordingly, in taking Raphael as his point of departure, M. Bouguereau shows that modern sentiment can be encorporated into older styles." (Clément de Ris, op. cit. Baschet, p.15).
We are grateful to Louise d'Argencourt and Damien Bartoli for assisting in the cataloguing of this painting.
Fig. 1: J.-A.-D. Ingres, Vénus Anadyomène, Musée Condé, Chantilly
Photo credit: Lauros-Giraudon