Bouguereau made more than seven hundred finished works. French painter. From 1838 to 1841 he took drawing lessons from Louis Sage, a pupil of Ingres, while attending the coll?ge at Pons. In 1841 the family moved to Bordeaux where in 1842 his father allowed him to attend the Ecole Municipale de Dessin et de Peinture part-time, under Jean-Paul Alaux. In 1844 he won the first prize for figure painting, which confirmed his desire to become a painter. As there were insufficient family funds to send him straight to Paris he painted portraits of the local gentry from 1845 to 1846 to earn money. In 1846 he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in the studio of Francois-Edouard Picot. This was the beginning of the standard academic training of which he became so ardent a defender later in life. Such early works as Equality reveal the technical proficiency he had attained even while still training. In 1850 he was awarded one of the two Premier Grand Prix de Rome for Zenobia Discovered by Shepherds on the Bank of the River Araxes (1850; Paris, Ecole N. Sup. B.-A.). In December 1850 he left for Rome where he remained at the Villa Medici until 1854, working under Victor Schnetz and Jean Alaux (1786-1864). During this period he made an extensive study of Giotto's work at Assisi and Padua and was also impressed by the works of other Renaissance masters and by Classical art. On his return to France he exhibited the Triumph of the Martyr (1853; Luneville, Mus. Luneville; ) at the Salon of 1854. It depicted St Cecilia's body being carried to the catacombs, and its high finish, restrained colour and classical poses were to be constant features of his painting thereafter. All his works were executed in several stages involving an initial oil sketch followed by numerous pencil drawings taken from life. Though he generally restricted himself to classical, religious and genre subjects, he was commissioned by the state to paint Napoleon III Visiting the Flood Victims of Tarascon in 1856   Related Paintings of Adolphe William Bouguereau :. | Spinner | Birth of Venus | Child at Bath (mk26) | Rest (mk26) | Nymphs and Satyr (mk26) |
Related Artists:
Francois-Hubert Drouais
Paris 1727-Rome 1775 was a French painter and Jean-Germain Drouais's father. He specialized in portraits, some of which include Louis XV's last two mistresses, Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry respectively. He even painted the young Marie Antoinette.
hedvig eleonoras
Hedvig Eleonora av Holstein-Gottorp, född 23 oktober 1636, död 24 november 1715, var svensk drottning och riksföreståndare, dotter till Fredrik III av Holstein-Gottorp och Marie Elisabeth av Sachsen och gift i november 1654 med Karl X Gustav. Hon var med honom i Polen 1656 och i Danmark 1658. Hon var Sveriges drottning i sex år, men de facto "första dam" till sin död 1715, i femtiofem års tid. Hon blev änka 1660 och levde som änkedrottning i ytterligare 55 år. Kung Karl II av England friade till henne något år efter makens död, men hon tackade nej, med den formella motiveringen att hon önskade vara sin döde make evigt trogen. Hon satt i förmyndarregeringarna för både sin son Karl XI och sin sonson Karl XII, 1660-1672 samt 1697, och sedan i rådet 1700-1713, men hade i verkligheten aldrig så mycket att göra med politik, utan var nöjd med att formellt presidera över regeringen och hovet som monarkins symboliska överhuvud och representant. Hon stödde dock den profranska och antidanska policy som fördes av regenterna. Hennes son var djupt beroende av henne i hela sitt liv; då han blev gammal nog att sitta med vid regeringens sammanträden, talade han inte direkt till ledamöterna, han viskade i stället vad han ville veta till riksänkedrottningen, och Hedvig Eleonora frågade sedan regeringen med hög röst vad han ville veta. Då sorgeperioden formellt bröts år 1663 var hon värdinna för omfattande festligheter, och det var i hennes namn Sveriges första fasta teater öppnades i Stora Bollhuset och Lejonkulan 1667. Hedvig Eleonora, "Riksänkedrottningen", hade en dominant och temperamentsfull personlighet och dominerade det svenska hovet totalt fram till sin död. Även efter sin sons giftermål 1680 och fram till sin död 1715 var hon den verkliga drottningen och behöll sin position som "första dam"; sonen kallade henne "drottningen" och sin fru för "min fru". Under stora nordiska kriget var hon 1700-13 representant för kungen, men intresserade sig inte heller nu mycket för politik- vid audienser för utländska sändebud kunde antingen "moltiga" eller gapskratta åt dem. Hon intresserade sig för kortspel och arkitektur. Hon kunde spela kort till inpå småtimmarna. Drottningholms slott samt Strömsholms slott påbörjades av henne. Vid båda slotten lät hon anlägga stora parker i tidens stil.
Jacob de Backer
(c. 1555 - c. 1585) was a Flemish Mannerist painter and draughtsman active in Antwerp between about 1571 and 1585. According to the RKD he was born in Antwerp in c.1540/45 and died there c.1591-1600.De Backer was abandoned by his father as a young boy. Carel van Mander reports that the artist studied with Antonio van Palermo and Hendrik van Steenwijk I, but that Palermo worked him so hard that the young de Backer died in the arms of his master's daughter at the age of thirty. Although the artist painted in the high mannerist style of Giorgio Vasari, he never appeared to travel to Italy. A series of the "Seven Deadly Sins", however, was bought in Antwerp by Alessandro Farnese's secretary Cosimo Masi in 1594 and taken to Italy.These paintings are now in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. Other attributable works include a Last Judgment triptych by him or his studio for Christophe Plantin's tomb in the Antwerp Cathedral (c. 1589; illustrated right), and an Allegory of the Three Ages of Man in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. He is not to be confused with the Dutch Golden Age painter Jacob Adriaensz Backer from