William-Adolphe Bouguereau was at once both blessed and cursed. During the 19th century he was a wildly successful painter; a darling of the salon, the lead instructor at Acadamie Julian, and the winner of the Prix de Rome at the age of 26. He was a master of his medium, a strict academic and traditionalist and perhaps one of the greatest painters to have ever lived. But his curse was the future of painting. The middle and end of his career coincided with the rise of Impressionism and the birth of modern art. Bouguereau was reviled and mocked by the new painters. His meticulously executed and refined canvases with their perfect finish and mythological and pastoral themes epitomized what was wrong with painting according to these new purveyors of modernism. Through their tireless sarcasm and ridicule of his work, his paintings became known as "chocolate box" art. Paul Guaguin thought his work belonged only in brothels. Bouguereau's rise was meteoric and his fall tragic. His work was once again appreciated for its beauty, its compositions and mastery by the end of the following century. But this was far too late for Bouguereau who left this Earth watching his life's creations decline.

Oil and Gold Leaf on Canvas  30" x 40"