Bouguereau Embracing Children

Young Woman Contemplating Two Embracing Children William Adolphe Bouguereau 1861 William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 - 1905) was a French academic painter. He was the most popular French artist of the late 1800s. His realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects with a heavy emphasis on the female human body. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. He was a devout Catholic who viewed his work as a form of worship. Throughout the course of his life, Bouguereau executed 822 known finished paintings, although the whereabouts of many are still unknown. Young Woman Contemplating Two Embracing Children is Neoclassicism style which is characterized by the use of straight lines, a smooth paint surface, the depiction of light, a minimal use of colour, and the clear, crisp definition of forms.