european & american art

Childhood Idyll, William-Adolphe Bouguereau

At the time of his death in 1905, William-Adolphe Bouguereau was one of the most beloved and most hated artists in France. He never strayed from his conservative style, despite the artistic revolution swirling around him. Some people were awed by his skill; others found him sappy and old-fashioned. He steadfastly maintained that art should be beautiful: “Why produce what is ugly?”

He wanted his art to be timeless, too, so instead of the latest fashions, the girls in this painting wear peasant-type clothing that could belong to several different centuries and sit in an imaginary countryside emptied of signs of modern life. In reality, the models probably posed in his studio.

Western American Art