View of the Salon Carré at the Louvre (ca. 1880)

Alexandre Brun: View of the Salon Carré at the Louvre

The Birth of Venus (1879)

William Bouguereau: The Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus (French: La Naissance de Vénus) is one of the most famous paintings by 19th-century painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. It depicts not the actual birth of Venus from the sea, but her transportation in a shell as a fully mature woman from the sea to Paphos in Cyprus. She is considered the epitome of the Classical Greek and Roman ideal of the female form and beauty, on par with Venus de Milo.

For Bouguereau, it is considered a tour de force. The canvas stands at just over 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) high, and 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) wide. The subject matter, as well as the composition, resembles a previous rendition of this subject, Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, as well as Raphael's The Triumph of Galatea.

At the center of the painting, Venus stands nude on a scallop shell being pulled by a dolphin, one of her symbols. Fifteen putti, including Cupid and Psyche, and several nymphs and centaurs have gathered to witness Venus' arrival. Most of the figures are gazing at her, and two of the centaurs are blowing into conch and Triton shells, signaling her arrival.

Venus is considered to be the embodiment of feminine beauty and form, and these traits are shown in the painting. Her head is tilted to one side, and her facial expression is calm, comfortable with her nudity. She raises her arms, arranging her thigh-length, brown hair, swaying elegantly in an "S" curve contrapposto, emphasizing the curves of her body.

The model for Venus was Marie Georgine, princess of Ligne. In 1861, she was on a short holiday in Paris with her lover. Together, they modeled for Bouguereau's Abduction of Psyche and Flora and Zephyr. He worked out Venus and other sketches and paintings later from photographs he took of the couple. Some of Bouguereau's other works, like La Nuit, are also based on her. Marie was also painted by Léon Bonnat and photographed by Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon. [Wikipedia]

William Bouguereau (1879)

 William Bouguereau: Young Gypsies

  

William Bouguereau: Rest

The Mandore Player (1879)

Theobald Chartran: The Mandore Player

Morning Glory (1879)

Jules Joseph Lefebvre: Morning Glory

LeFèbvre was known for his allegorical portrayals of the female nude and the popularity of his paintings rivaled that of William Bouguereau. Most famous for his portraits and genre scenes, as well as his championing of the traditional cult of beauty, LeFèbvre's atelier at the Academie Julien, where William-Adolphe Bouguereau taught as well, attracted many of the finest young artists of the time, including the American Elizabeth Jane Gardner (who later married Bouguereau). LeFèbvre, who had honed his skills in Italy by copying works of the Italian Mannerist painter Andrea del Sarto, emphasized precise drawing skills in his teaching. One reviewer wrote in 1881, 'It is sufficient to just mention his name in order to immediately evoke the memory and the image of the thousand adorable creatures of which he is the young father... An unusually skilled draftsman, Jules LeFèbvre better than anyone else caresses, with a brush both delicate and sure, the undulating contour of the feminine form.'

As can be seen in the quality of the present picture, LeFèbvre's work is executed with a high degree of finish. True to his academic training, he was a superb draughtsman, and paid particular care to the rendering of figures. His familiarity and appreciation for the classics is evident here in the dress and the gesture of the figure, particularly the way in which she stands.

In Morning Glory, despite the mythical atmosphere and dress of the figure, LeFèbvre has created a sense of realism with the figure's expression and specific sense of youth. Her ripe age - she is just recently a woman - and the impressive presence granted her by the size of the canvas suggest an incredible potential power in her position at the very beginning of her grown-up life, one which the intensity of her gaze suggests she is just beginning to recognize and harness. [Christie’s]

October, Gathering Potatoes (1879)

Jules Bastien-Lepage: October, Gathering Potatoes

Saturday Afternoon on the Coast of Normandy (1879)

Jules Trayer: Saturday Afternoon on the Coast of Normandy