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Lot Essay
In the last quarter of the 19th century, American art collectors had an almost insatiable appetite for the work of William Bouguereau. A generation of entrepreneurs and tycoons, this group of millionaire collectors was eager to decorate their new mansions with iconic compositions that demonstrated a high level of quality and artistic virtuosity. Their taste is reflected to this day in national museum collections and ultimately created a visual vocabulary for American creatives to draw from. As such, pioneers of early cinematography, who relied on the work of the 19th century painters to help create their imagined worlds, frequently turned to Bouguereau’s draped goddesses and peasant children for inspiration.
This sustained interest of American collectors was nurtured by the French dealer Paul Durand-Ruel and then effectively sustained by Adolphe Goupil, Durand-Ruel’s closest competitor in Paris. At the encouragement of Durand-Ruel, Bouguereau made the fortuitous decision to shift his choice of subjects away from the large religious commissions toward the type of idealizing image more easily consumed by his wealthy American collectors. In particular, he embraced the late nineteenth century fascination with rural life, concentrating on young girls depicted in, or from, the countryside. Social accuracy was not his concern and the world presented on Bougureau’s canvases was far rosier than the harsh realities of those who lived outside the cities. Fronia Wissman writes: ‘Bouguereau and the well-to-do-collectors who acquired his paintings preferred to see these children as picturesque outsiders, facts of daily life perhaps, but poignant rather than threatening’ (F. Wissman, Bouguereau, San Francisco, 1996, p. 51). In L'Oeillet, painted in 1890, Bouguereau shows a young girl standing before a dark background, gazing out toward the viewer. In her hands, she holds two small groups of pink carnations, as if caught in the process of separating their stems from one another. Her beautifully coiffed hair is held back by a simple black ribbon tied in a bow, and though rustic in style, her dress is perfectly clean and free from any signs of work or wear, reflecting her idealized state.
This sustained interest of American collectors was nurtured by the French dealer Paul Durand-Ruel and then effectively sustained by Adolphe Goupil, Durand-Ruel’s closest competitor in Paris. At the encouragement of Durand-Ruel, Bouguereau made the fortuitous decision to shift his choice of subjects away from the large religious commissions toward the type of idealizing image more easily consumed by his wealthy American collectors. In particular, he embraced the late nineteenth century fascination with rural life, concentrating on young girls depicted in, or from, the countryside. Social accuracy was not his concern and the world presented on Bougureau’s canvases was far rosier than the harsh realities of those who lived outside the cities. Fronia Wissman writes: ‘Bouguereau and the well-to-do-collectors who acquired his paintings preferred to see these children as picturesque outsiders, facts of daily life perhaps, but poignant rather than threatening’ (F. Wissman, Bouguereau, San Francisco, 1996, p. 51). In L'Oeillet, painted in 1890, Bouguereau shows a young girl standing before a dark background, gazing out toward the viewer. In her hands, she holds two small groups of pink carnations, as if caught in the process of separating their stems from one another. Her beautifully coiffed hair is held back by a simple black ribbon tied in a bow, and though rustic in style, her dress is perfectly clean and free from any signs of work or wear, reflecting her idealized state.