Bouguereau: Select Paintings
Thoughts On: 3 Paintings by William Bouguereau: The Virgin, the Baby Jesus and Saint John the Baptist (1875), Orestes Pursued By The Furies (1862), The Elder Daughter (1862)
A look at academic art via the works of William Bouguereau.
William Bouguereau is a French painter who was active from the mid-19th century through to the early-20th century. He is known as one of the foremost academic arrtists, and so his work is thought to encapsulate the highest standards of painting and express formal rules that French academies would propose. Bouguereau's work is then thought of as both pompous and brilliant. One of his most famous works is The Birth Of Venus...
This painting captures two of Bouguereau's most prevalent themes: mythology and the female subject. However, we shall not dwell on this painting. Today, I would rather speak of three of his paintings that I find most profoundly captivating.
What strikes me most about Bouguereau's paintings is their quiet and hushed drama, drama that is either very subtle or suppressed to specific points and details of the canvas. The Birth Of Venus is not a painting that particularly affects me because there is a very forward attempt of large expression and romantic drama. This drama exists in the general form of the painting, but doesn't hold up, to my eye, upon closer inspection. Paintings of Bouguereau that I find more interesting then capture a certain dynamism and liveliness in smaller confines. One such example would be Italian Girl Drawing Water:
The warmth of the earthy colours in this painting surrounding the white head dress and shirt pull your eye to the centre of the painting, to the large, dark eyes of the subject. But, what calls out below the highlighted area are the girl's hands:
The shadows these hands cast and the mesh of light they reflect as the fingers intertwine is so deeply real, fleshy and human that there inherently emerges something dramatic. In this girls' hands seems to be a conflict between comfort and discomfort, contemplation and anxiety, rest and unrest. Her eyes reveal little of this; she seems distant and disengaged...
All is in her hands, but what they say we cannot know specifically. Strangely, however, this seems to be where her humanity and soul are stored, where Bouguereau expresses her individuality:
This can be found to be true in an array of Bouguereau's paintings. It seems especially true in one of his very late paintings titled Dream of Spring...
I find this paining to overall be somewhat insipid and sentimental. I particularly do not like its paleness, the presentation of purple and the washed-out skin tone of the girl's face. The drama of this composition then feels inane. Alas, I am drawn immediately to the main figure's left hand:
There is something daintily brilliant about the incredibly precise and prim position of this hand. The rough presence of the strokes gives this painting greater texture and grit than many of Bouguereau's other works. This resonates with the rather harsh contrast between the pale and redish hues - and such is particularly true of the subject's feet:
It is so fascinating that Bouguereau pays most care and often gives great emphasis to the hands and feet of his female subjects. They so often seem to float off the canvas despite being the subject's contact with the world and diegesis constructed around them.
It is nonetheless these elements that reach out and marker humanity in a rather uncanny and intimate capacity. Study, then, these details and contrast them to the wider frame Bouguereau constructs, and it becomes all too apparent that this composition was chosen for those integral, human contact points, the hand and feet:
Continuing on to the main Bouguereau paintings I want to explore, we come to what is certainly to me his most uncanny and darkly enthralling:
For all that could be said about this painting's religious subject matter, about the infant John Baptist and baby Jesus, I cannot be distracted from the face and hands of the Virgin Mary:
Devastatingly mysterious and aloof, the Virgin Mary is given a disinterested gaze, an almost scornful expression. There is such poise and quietness radiating from the gaze and expression, however, that we doubt ourselves indefinitely. What Mary thinks and sees I cannot guess at, but can't help but be entranced by. And then there are her hands, firstly her right:
The delicate control, yet definite strength in both the hand and arm here is regal beyond description. The indentation that Mary's fingers make upon her cheek, the length and, though it may seem strange to say, the maturity, of her hand and fingers all come together above John Baptist's head with such powerful indifference. Combine this too with the shapely, yet seemingly porcelain upper lip, the marble nose and smoothed rock chin and there exudes an unshakeable authority and divinity in this image, hidden beneath human touch, texture and palpability. All of this is emphasised with the left hand:
Above all else, it is this gesture that baffles me most. Herein is danger and dominance, given by the pointed finger, its intentions so unclear. Yet look also to the layering of the hands, and the manner in which Mary's fingers seem to either crush or caress John Baptist's. Is her hand withdrawing or approaching Jesus too? Again: what is the intent?
It is the unknowing that is mapped over this incredibly declarative and assertive composition that rings through above all else. It is none other than flawing--truly astounding...
Moving on again, we come to one of the first of Bouguereau's paintings that I came into contact with. This is a somewhat irregular and anomalous painting of Bouguereau's for it does not secure a serene tone, nor does it focus on the feminine body as divinely regal; palpable, untouchable. Drawing upon Greek myth, this depicts Orestes Pursued By The Furies:
From this painting there emerges an intense projection of insanity and derangement that is as romantic as it is chilling. Dramatogically, this is ever so slightly reminiscent of two other famous Bouguereau paintings. Firstly, Dante and Virgil:
This generates disturbia with its very harsh contrast between eroticism and violence. Like Orestes Pursued By The Furies, this has a sudden intensity about it. This is provided by the chiaroscuro and the great contrast between light and dark that highlights musculature and texture. There is something contrived and exploitative about the general aesthetic of this painting in my view, however. Here, the focus is not inner psychology, but disgust and animalistic insanity. Here is the insanity...
Here is the disgust...
And here, too, is sadism...
What emerges from these faces beyond horror? They project, but do not reveal. This is not true of Bouguereau's depiction of Orestes. That said, however, let us look also at Bouguereau's Satyr and the Nymphs:
This is a whimsically romantic and melodramatic painting, one that uses highly musical colours, hues and tones. At least, this is what first reaches out. The dark centrepiece of this painting exudes something a little less whimsical than the initial lights that strike out. Alas, this painting feels static in the wrong places and too soft in others. The three upper-nymphs then lack motion to my eye and the Satyr seems too clouded and dark. I bring this up along side Dante and Virgil as well as Orestes Pursued By The Furies nonetheless because it contains strife, violence and panic - emotions that are not too often expressed on Bouguereau's canvas. That said, let us return to Orestes:
What this painting captures so brilliantly is a conflict between motion and inertia; it is the furies that seem to stream across the frame whilst Orestes is slowly crumbling downwards. His mother, who he killed and who the Furies haunt him with, falls away from the scene, the dagger and her red cloth her character. Yet, whilst the bodies and faces of the Furies hiss and move, seemingly visibly and audibly, let us look through Orestes' glass features:
His soul is not present, it is shattered, his features deranged and mad. Guilt and shame have overcome the young boy - how innocent and useless his body now seems, however youthful and vibrant it is in posture and colour:
It is across the body that we see Bouguereau utilise romanticism in contrast to violence again, but the effect this conjures within this painting is functional and symbolic. Orestes seemingly exists outside of the dark and surreal surrounding him. The romantic depiction of his body, the details, the veins, the skin tone, reveal him to be of another world; the space around him a surreal, psychological projection.
The top of the frame here is the most surreal element - that and the brilliant darkness encompassing all. Here we see three core symbols, fire, snakes and the dagger. The fire and the snakes represent the Furies, both their deceptive and evil side with the snake, yet also their illumination in darkness. Embodying chaotic female elements, the Furies are wisdom and poison; they are what exists beyond the innocence and purity so often ascribed to females, and they emerge upon the betrayal of the female body to haunt the male psyche. The powerful lines, the beautifully detailed pointing figures, of this painting all direct us to the final, third, symbol: the knife that Orestes used to kill his mother. Justified though he may have thought himself to be for killing his mother, his matricide is unforgivable, inconceivable, in his own mind. This is what this painting embodies, and it is stunning for its almost immediate expression of this.
The last painting which we shall look at is my favourite of Bouguereau's - yet it is one that I cannot definitively confirm to have even been painted by him. Alas, this is the final painting:
Incomprehensibly ghostly and impossibly penetrating, this feels like a sympathetic counter-part to Bouguereau's depiction of The Virgin Mary with Jesus and John Baptist.
The Elder Sister shares the same uncanny piety and sustains a tension between female and infant, but reverses the relationship between woman and infant. It is Mary that seemingly holds the power and dark aloofness in the previous painting, but it is the unknown infant here that retains power and position.
Though this may seem ironic, maybe a little ludicrous, there is presented here a conflict between innocence and conscious possession. Just look into the baby's eyes, see his arm, unnaturally relaxed, resting over his sister. Notice his size, how he seems too mature to be cradled as such, too old to be perceived as merely cute; behind his eyes is curiosity and daring, upon his body is confidence and pudgy weakness: the discord induces dissonance. Look also to his right arm:
The significance of this necklace, I am not sure of. However, it seemingly indicates that the baby is simultaneously owned and owning someone feminine - maybe this is his sister's, maybe it is an absent mother's. It seems tattered and worn, however. The question raised concerns how the baby has treated it. Alas, what is of greater significance here is the strength and poise of the arm holding the necklace. This isn't simply being dangled off of the infants hand, nor is the baby simply griping it. There is purpose in this gesture that entirely changes the general composition, again, giving the baby unnatural consciousness.
Whilst the baby's presence luminates with something strangely domineering, his sister remains the centre-piece, an image of control over innocence, calm, compassion and sympathy:
Simple and patient, softly inquisitive, this face exudes a quality indescribable, yet in defiance of the general composition. See how soft the light in her hair and over her cheeks are. See how her ear bends against the baby's forehead. See the tilt to her neck and the line crossing her ears and eyes. See how balance emerges from this. Then look to her arms and hands...
Encumbered and bent, they seem used to the weight they carry; the yellow colouration implying both durability and their wear. The struggling clasp has found its grip and is unmoving, yet its contact with the skin of the baby is impossibly delicate; the baby floating in her arms. How slovenly he seems and how uncannily ethereal she is made to appear.
For all that is otherworldly about the demeanour of this girl, in spite of her ambiguous, dark and flattened background, she seems present and, like the Virgin Mary, palpable yet untouchable. And much like Bouguereau's divine depiction, little can be concluded here. As striking as it is confounding, this leaves me without words of real purpose.
With our look at a selection of Bouguereau's paintings over, I shall bring things to a close with an open question to you. What do you think of Bouguereau and the paintings discussed today?
Previous post:
Tulpan - The Long Return Home
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Ant Man And The Wasp - What Is Cheesecake Without A Biscuit Base?
More from me:
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A look at academic art via the works of William Bouguereau.
This painting captures two of Bouguereau's most prevalent themes: mythology and the female subject. However, we shall not dwell on this painting. Today, I would rather speak of three of his paintings that I find most profoundly captivating.
What strikes me most about Bouguereau's paintings is their quiet and hushed drama, drama that is either very subtle or suppressed to specific points and details of the canvas. The Birth Of Venus is not a painting that particularly affects me because there is a very forward attempt of large expression and romantic drama. This drama exists in the general form of the painting, but doesn't hold up, to my eye, upon closer inspection. Paintings of Bouguereau that I find more interesting then capture a certain dynamism and liveliness in smaller confines. One such example would be Italian Girl Drawing Water:
The warmth of the earthy colours in this painting surrounding the white head dress and shirt pull your eye to the centre of the painting, to the large, dark eyes of the subject. But, what calls out below the highlighted area are the girl's hands:
The shadows these hands cast and the mesh of light they reflect as the fingers intertwine is so deeply real, fleshy and human that there inherently emerges something dramatic. In this girls' hands seems to be a conflict between comfort and discomfort, contemplation and anxiety, rest and unrest. Her eyes reveal little of this; she seems distant and disengaged...
All is in her hands, but what they say we cannot know specifically. Strangely, however, this seems to be where her humanity and soul are stored, where Bouguereau expresses her individuality:
This can be found to be true in an array of Bouguereau's paintings. It seems especially true in one of his very late paintings titled Dream of Spring...
I find this paining to overall be somewhat insipid and sentimental. I particularly do not like its paleness, the presentation of purple and the washed-out skin tone of the girl's face. The drama of this composition then feels inane. Alas, I am drawn immediately to the main figure's left hand:
There is something daintily brilliant about the incredibly precise and prim position of this hand. The rough presence of the strokes gives this painting greater texture and grit than many of Bouguereau's other works. This resonates with the rather harsh contrast between the pale and redish hues - and such is particularly true of the subject's feet:
It is so fascinating that Bouguereau pays most care and often gives great emphasis to the hands and feet of his female subjects. They so often seem to float off the canvas despite being the subject's contact with the world and diegesis constructed around them.
It is nonetheless these elements that reach out and marker humanity in a rather uncanny and intimate capacity. Study, then, these details and contrast them to the wider frame Bouguereau constructs, and it becomes all too apparent that this composition was chosen for those integral, human contact points, the hand and feet:
Continuing on to the main Bouguereau paintings I want to explore, we come to what is certainly to me his most uncanny and darkly enthralling:
For all that could be said about this painting's religious subject matter, about the infant John Baptist and baby Jesus, I cannot be distracted from the face and hands of the Virgin Mary:
Devastatingly mysterious and aloof, the Virgin Mary is given a disinterested gaze, an almost scornful expression. There is such poise and quietness radiating from the gaze and expression, however, that we doubt ourselves indefinitely. What Mary thinks and sees I cannot guess at, but can't help but be entranced by. And then there are her hands, firstly her right:
The delicate control, yet definite strength in both the hand and arm here is regal beyond description. The indentation that Mary's fingers make upon her cheek, the length and, though it may seem strange to say, the maturity, of her hand and fingers all come together above John Baptist's head with such powerful indifference. Combine this too with the shapely, yet seemingly porcelain upper lip, the marble nose and smoothed rock chin and there exudes an unshakeable authority and divinity in this image, hidden beneath human touch, texture and palpability. All of this is emphasised with the left hand:
Above all else, it is this gesture that baffles me most. Herein is danger and dominance, given by the pointed finger, its intentions so unclear. Yet look also to the layering of the hands, and the manner in which Mary's fingers seem to either crush or caress John Baptist's. Is her hand withdrawing or approaching Jesus too? Again: what is the intent?
It is the unknowing that is mapped over this incredibly declarative and assertive composition that rings through above all else. It is none other than flawing--truly astounding...
Moving on again, we come to one of the first of Bouguereau's paintings that I came into contact with. This is a somewhat irregular and anomalous painting of Bouguereau's for it does not secure a serene tone, nor does it focus on the feminine body as divinely regal; palpable, untouchable. Drawing upon Greek myth, this depicts Orestes Pursued By The Furies:
From this painting there emerges an intense projection of insanity and derangement that is as romantic as it is chilling. Dramatogically, this is ever so slightly reminiscent of two other famous Bouguereau paintings. Firstly, Dante and Virgil:
Here is the disgust...
And here, too, is sadism...
What emerges from these faces beyond horror? They project, but do not reveal. This is not true of Bouguereau's depiction of Orestes. That said, however, let us look also at Bouguereau's Satyr and the Nymphs:
This is a whimsically romantic and melodramatic painting, one that uses highly musical colours, hues and tones. At least, this is what first reaches out. The dark centrepiece of this painting exudes something a little less whimsical than the initial lights that strike out. Alas, this painting feels static in the wrong places and too soft in others. The three upper-nymphs then lack motion to my eye and the Satyr seems too clouded and dark. I bring this up along side Dante and Virgil as well as Orestes Pursued By The Furies nonetheless because it contains strife, violence and panic - emotions that are not too often expressed on Bouguereau's canvas. That said, let us return to Orestes:
What this painting captures so brilliantly is a conflict between motion and inertia; it is the furies that seem to stream across the frame whilst Orestes is slowly crumbling downwards. His mother, who he killed and who the Furies haunt him with, falls away from the scene, the dagger and her red cloth her character. Yet, whilst the bodies and faces of the Furies hiss and move, seemingly visibly and audibly, let us look through Orestes' glass features:
His soul is not present, it is shattered, his features deranged and mad. Guilt and shame have overcome the young boy - how innocent and useless his body now seems, however youthful and vibrant it is in posture and colour:
It is across the body that we see Bouguereau utilise romanticism in contrast to violence again, but the effect this conjures within this painting is functional and symbolic. Orestes seemingly exists outside of the dark and surreal surrounding him. The romantic depiction of his body, the details, the veins, the skin tone, reveal him to be of another world; the space around him a surreal, psychological projection.
The top of the frame here is the most surreal element - that and the brilliant darkness encompassing all. Here we see three core symbols, fire, snakes and the dagger. The fire and the snakes represent the Furies, both their deceptive and evil side with the snake, yet also their illumination in darkness. Embodying chaotic female elements, the Furies are wisdom and poison; they are what exists beyond the innocence and purity so often ascribed to females, and they emerge upon the betrayal of the female body to haunt the male psyche. The powerful lines, the beautifully detailed pointing figures, of this painting all direct us to the final, third, symbol: the knife that Orestes used to kill his mother. Justified though he may have thought himself to be for killing his mother, his matricide is unforgivable, inconceivable, in his own mind. This is what this painting embodies, and it is stunning for its almost immediate expression of this.
The last painting which we shall look at is my favourite of Bouguereau's - yet it is one that I cannot definitively confirm to have even been painted by him. Alas, this is the final painting:
Incomprehensibly ghostly and impossibly penetrating, this feels like a sympathetic counter-part to Bouguereau's depiction of The Virgin Mary with Jesus and John Baptist.
The Elder Sister shares the same uncanny piety and sustains a tension between female and infant, but reverses the relationship between woman and infant. It is Mary that seemingly holds the power and dark aloofness in the previous painting, but it is the unknown infant here that retains power and position.
Though this may seem ironic, maybe a little ludicrous, there is presented here a conflict between innocence and conscious possession. Just look into the baby's eyes, see his arm, unnaturally relaxed, resting over his sister. Notice his size, how he seems too mature to be cradled as such, too old to be perceived as merely cute; behind his eyes is curiosity and daring, upon his body is confidence and pudgy weakness: the discord induces dissonance. Look also to his right arm:
The significance of this necklace, I am not sure of. However, it seemingly indicates that the baby is simultaneously owned and owning someone feminine - maybe this is his sister's, maybe it is an absent mother's. It seems tattered and worn, however. The question raised concerns how the baby has treated it. Alas, what is of greater significance here is the strength and poise of the arm holding the necklace. This isn't simply being dangled off of the infants hand, nor is the baby simply griping it. There is purpose in this gesture that entirely changes the general composition, again, giving the baby unnatural consciousness.
Whilst the baby's presence luminates with something strangely domineering, his sister remains the centre-piece, an image of control over innocence, calm, compassion and sympathy:
Simple and patient, softly inquisitive, this face exudes a quality indescribable, yet in defiance of the general composition. See how soft the light in her hair and over her cheeks are. See how her ear bends against the baby's forehead. See the tilt to her neck and the line crossing her ears and eyes. See how balance emerges from this. Then look to her arms and hands...
Encumbered and bent, they seem used to the weight they carry; the yellow colouration implying both durability and their wear. The struggling clasp has found its grip and is unmoving, yet its contact with the skin of the baby is impossibly delicate; the baby floating in her arms. How slovenly he seems and how uncannily ethereal she is made to appear.
For all that is otherworldly about the demeanour of this girl, in spite of her ambiguous, dark and flattened background, she seems present and, like the Virgin Mary, palpable yet untouchable. And much like Bouguereau's divine depiction, little can be concluded here. As striking as it is confounding, this leaves me without words of real purpose.
***
With our look at a selection of Bouguereau's paintings over, I shall bring things to a close with an open question to you. What do you think of Bouguereau and the paintings discussed today?
Previous post:
Tulpan - The Long Return Home
Next post:
Ant Man And The Wasp - What Is Cheesecake Without A Biscuit Base?
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
