William-Adolphe Bouguereau🎨, (born Nov. 30, 1825, La Rochelle, Fr. - died Aug. 19, 1905, La Rochelle), French painter🎨, a dominant figure in his nation’s Academic painting during the second half of the 19th century.
Bouguereau🎨 entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1846 and was awarded🎨 the Prix de Rome in 1850. Upon his return to France from four years’ study in Italy, he attracted a wide following with his mythological and allegorical paintings, although his portrait paintings are perhaps held in higher esteem today.
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His work was characterized by a highly finished, technically impeccable realism and a sentimental interpretation of his subject matter.
Bouguereau received many honours🎨 in the 1860s and ’70s as his career progressed; he exhibited regularly at the Salon for several decades and became for a time the most famous French painter🎨 of his day. As a proponent of official orthodoxy in painting, he played a major role in the exclusion of the works of the Impressionists🎨 and other experimental painters from the Salon.
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In his later years he decorated the chapels of several Parisian churches and painted religious compositions in a Pre-Raphaelite style. He exerted a wide influence, not only in France but in other countries, particularly the United States. In 1876 he was made a member of the Academy of Fine Arts.
Modern critics tend to assess Bouguereau as a painter who sacrificed boldness of technique and originality of outlook for a highly polished but conventional treatment of the human form. | © Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Bouguereau, William-Adolphe - Pittore Francese🎨, nato a La Rochelle il 30 novembre 1825. Sentendosi fortemente ȧttratto dalla pittura, si recò a Parigi nel 1846 nonostante le difficoltà poste dalla sua famiglia, ed entrò nello studio del Picot alla scuola delle belle arti, insieme col Cabanel🎨 e con lo Henner.
Nel 1850 ottenne il primo gran premio per Roma. In Italia si esercitò a copiare gli antichi e soprattutto Raffaello🎨; tornato a Parigi nel 1854, partecipò all'esposizione universale dell'anno seguente, eseguì importanti decorazioni in palazzi privati della capitale francese e di La Rochelle.
Dal 1866-1885 compì pitture decorative per le chiese di S. Agostino, S. Clotilde e S. Vincenzo de' Paoli a Parigi, per il teatro di Bordeaux, per la cattedrale di La Rochelle. Si trovano alcune sue tele nei musei di Anversa, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Digione, La Rochelle, Mulhouse. Colmato di ricompense e d'onori, considerato come il simbolo dell'arte ufficiale nella sua espressione più convenzionale, morì a La Rochelle il 18 agosto 1905. | © Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana