The Pearl by William-Adolphe Bouguereau Postcard

The Pearl by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1894, is an oil painting on canvas of a female figure crouching in a tidal pool seemingly set in a rocky grotto, powerful ocean waves splashing from a stormy, romantic seascape. A large, lumpy pearl and conch shell sit in the foreground, briny seawater washing over them. Bouguereau utilizes his academic classical technique to create a powerful image of romantic French painting. William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 - 1905) was a French painter who trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the Villa Medici in Rome. He exhibited with great success in the French Salon and became one of most renowned and wealthy artists of his era. Bouguereau worked in the French Academic tradition, a school of late 19th century modern painters who concentrated on the human figure and classical subjects in highly polished works of optical realism. His main interest was the female figure, usually rendered in classical, finely drawn contours, in subjects that were often sentimental. Bouguereau's reputation diminished greatly in the 20th century with the rise of modern art, but interest in his traditional figurative paintings has surged again in recent years.