Fine Canvas Art Blog

La Jeunesse de Bacchus of 1884 by William Adolphe Bougereau

Academician / Bouguereau / French / Greco-Roman / Neoclassical / Paintings (Reproductions) - 1 year ago - troycapc

This is a wonderful work of the Neo-Classical Master William Adolphe Bougereau which he entitled, The Youth of Bacchus. The artist depicts the joy and celebration of the fantastical young life of the god of ecstasy and enthusiasm.  This is a masterpiece from the artist’s middle period when he was fifty-nine years old.  He was already one of the foremost artists of the Nineteenth Century.

Bouguereau was born into a merchant family in 1825 La Rochelle, France.  Through the influence of an uncle, he was exposed to Classical studies and attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux.  He began painting portraits and went to Paris, enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts there and won the Prix de Rome at the age of twenty-five.  Bouguereau became completely immersed in the Academic Style and was inspired by Raphael’s work.  He married in 1856 and his work and career gained in prestigue and success.  He bgan teaching in 1876 and, after the death of his first wife, he married one of his pupils in 1896.  His joy in his work is exemplified in his saying, “Each day I go to my studio full of joy; in the evening when obliged to stop because of darkness I can scarecely wait for the next morning to come …if I cannot give myself to my dear painting I am miserable.”  He died in 1905 in La Rochelle.

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