Bouguereau: Drawings & Paintings (Annotated) E-Book

Raya Yotova

• Herausgeber: Publisher s13381
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Bouguereau was an artist who painted in academic style realistic artworks with scenes of mythology but interpreted in a contemporary style, emphasizing on complex compositions with naked bodies. Adolphe-William Bouguereau has achieved great fame in France and especially in the United States, where collectors of his art valued his artworks a lot. Bouguereau could not find a common language with the new art of Impressionists and French avant-garde, and his academic style was perceived with irony by these modern artists. Towards the late 19th and early 20th century public opinion in France changed its taste to the art of the artist and began to accept it with irony and denial. It was not until the early 1980s that the positive attitude of the audience to the art of Bouguereau was revived again and collectors around the world began to look for his paintings again. The artist is the author of more than 800 paintings and a number of preparatory sketches.

Leseprobe

Bouguereau

Drawings & Paintings (Annotated)

Annotated by Raya Yotova

––––––––

First Edition

*****

Copyright © 2018 Annotations by Raya Yotova

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

Paintings & Drawings

Foreword

Bouguereau was an artist who painted in academic style realistic artworks with scenes of mythology but interpreted in a contemporary style, emphasizing on complex compositions with naked bodies. Adolphe-William Bouguereau has achieved great fame in France and especially in the United States, where collectors of his art valued his artworks a lot. Bouguereau could not find a common language with the new art of Impressionists and French avant-garde, and his academic style was perceived with irony by these modern artists. Towards the late 19th and early 20th century public opinion in France changed its taste to the art of the artist and began to accept it with irony and denial. It was not until the early 1980s that the positive attitude of the audience to the art of Bouguereau was revived again and collectors around the world began to look for his paintings again. The artist is the author of more than 800 paintings and a number of preparatory sketches.

Characteristic of his paintings was the idealization of the naked female body combined with mythological stories and themes like nymphs, ancient heroes and Christian legends. In terms of the academic and realistic style of interpretation of these themes, the artist never cheated on his established method of work. He thoroughly prepared for each of his large-scale compositions with many preparatory works and sketches. Particular attention he paid to human figures and their posture in the whole composition, which is evident in many preparatory sketches and variants. His patented mark is the detailed, almost naturalistic exposition of the human body. In this respect, Bouguereau admired the experience of the old masters of the Renaissance and imitated them. He also used a large part of the symbolism of old masters in his paintings, especially as regards religious scenes and symbols.

Throughout his artistic career he received well-paid commission orders for paintings and complete decoration of houses and public buildings that brought him not only good incomes but also great fame. The artist has consistently adhered to his own academic style of painting, and even when the preference of society has changed, he did not want to change his method. Besides his genre paintings with antique and ancient stories, he was also a well-known and successful portrait artist.

During his long artistic career he received very high awards, including the Commander of the Legion of Honor and the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor.

Paintings & Drawings

Dante and Virgil in Hell, 1850, Oil on canvas, 280.5 × 225.3 cm *

Canephores, 1852, Oil on canvas