William-Adolphe Bouguereau Paintings

About William-Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1825 to 1905, French academic painter, built his career on realistic genre painting. In those genre paintings he used mythological themes and made modern interpretations of classical stories, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life he enjoyed significant popularity in France and in the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. He was the quintessential salon painter of his generation, and the Impressionist avant-garde reviled him for exactly that.

By the early twentieth century Bouguereau and his art had fallen out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, after years out of fashion, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of William Bouguereau and his work, and that rediscovery is what most of this page rests on. He finished 822 known paintings, but the whereabouts of a large part of them are unknown, so for a long list of his titles a hand-painted copy in oil is the only way to live with the picture at all.

Series and periods

The page reads best by motif, because the same handful of them returns across all 342 titles.

• Mythology and the old stories: the mythological themes and the modern readings of classical stories, painted in the academic style. Titles here: The Abduction of Psyche, Nymphs and Satyr, Pandora, Roman Charity, Dante and Virgil.
• Angels and sacred painting: the angels, the Virgin and the Passion pictures, the group ordered most often here. Titles here: Regina Angelorum, Soul Carried to Heaven, The Archangel Saint Michael, Vierge aux anges, The Holy Women at the Tomb.
• Peasant girls and children: the shepherdesses, the street sellers and the village children, the genre painting that carried his name into ordinary houses. Titles here: The Young Shepherdess, Shepherdess, The Flower Seller, Raspberry Girl, The Italian Tambourine, The Palm Leaf.
• The female figure: the emphasis on the female figure that runs through the genre painting, in the finish a print cannot hold. Titles here: Going to the Bath, Modesty, The Return of Spring, Inspiration.

Most famous works

These are the Bouguereau titles people ask for most in this collection, ordered by the traffic each one draws and by what actually sells. Each name opens its own page, where you choose the size and decide on a frame. Every one is painted in oil after Bouguereau, to order, and no two hands read a brushstroke the same way.

• Nymphs and Satyr: a mythological scene, and one of the two Bouguereau paintings on our list of the 100 most famous
• Dante and Virgil: the other title of his on that list of 100, taken from Dante rather than from mythology
• The Archangel Saint Michael: the full title runs on to the plumed helmet and the colors of Austria, and this is the page visitors open more than any other William Bouguereau page in this collection
• Soul Carried to Heaven: a soul carried upward by angels, and the title ordered most often here
• Regina Angelorum: the Latin title names the Virgin as queen of the angels; it is second on the best selling list
• The Young Shepherdess: a standing peasant girl, one of the most ordered canvases of the genre group
• The Abduction of Psyche: Psyche carried into the air, from the classical story
• The First Mourning: a mourning scene, among the pages that draw the most visitors here
• Pieta: the Virgin with the body of Christ, one of the religious pictures
• The Flower Seller: a girl selling flowers, genre painting of the kind he worked all his life
• Shepherdess: a second shepherdess, the same motif in a quieter key
• Raspberry Girl: a child with raspberries, painted with the care he gave the mythologies
• The Italian Tambourine: a girl with a tambourine, one of the Italian pictures
• The Palm Leaf: a child holding a palm leaf, from the same group of village pictures
• Going to the Bath: mother and child at the bath, the female body in the academic finish
• Modesty: a single figure, the title given to the pose rather than to a story
• The Return of Spring: an allegory of spring, read in modern terms
• Inspiration: another allegory, one figure and no narrative
• Pandora: Pandora and her box, from Greek myth
• Roman Charity: the Roman story of a daughter feeding her imprisoned father
• Portrait of the Artist: his own face, and the place to start if you want the man himself on the wall
• Sketch of a Young Woman: a head study, painted at the speed a finished canvas never allows
• Study of the Homere Dog and Its Leader: a dog and the man holding it, unusual in a body of painting built on figures

Browse by subject

Bouguereau's subjects run through other collections of ours, and each one is a different door into the same painter.

• Religious paintings: 3,084 works, the visual representation of religious ideas and their relationship with humans, with sacred art the part of it made for worship and religious practice. The angels, the Pieta and the Passion pictures sit here with everything else we paint from scripture.
• Angel paintings: 389 canvases, Regina Angelorum, Soul Carried to Heaven and the Archangel, gathered with the angels of other painters.
• Paintings of children: 2,170 titles, The shepherdesses, the raspberry girl and the tambourine child, next to children painted by the rest of the studio list.
• Paintings of women: 9,375 pieces, the genre whose intent is to represent a specific human subject, worked on commission for public and private persons or out of admiration for the sitter, and long kept as a state and family record. The single female figures, from Modesty to the head studies.
• Nude paintings: 299 paintings, the tradition of visual art focused on the unclothed human figure, a preoccupation of Ancient Greek art that returned to a central position with the Renaissance. The bathers and the mythologies, where the emphasis on the female body is plainest.
• The 100 most famous paintings of all time: 2 canvases by Bouguereau sit on this list, our reading of the best known paintings in art history, Nymphs and Satyr and Dante and Virgil.

The full list of painters we reproduce in oil is on the artist index.

How each reproduction is painted

Nothing here is stock. When you order, an artist paints that title in oil on canvas in the size you picked, layer by layer, and you see a photograph of the finished painting and approve it before it leaves the studio. The sizes run from 16 by 20 inches up to 72 by 48, so one figure can sit above a desk or carry a gallery wall on its own. Seven sizes are available and the frame is optional, so the same picture can be a small study by a desk or the one thing on a wall. Shipping is free worldwide and returns stay open for 90 days.

Frequently asked questions

Which Bouguereau painting is the most famous?

Nymphs and Satyr and Dante and Virgil are the two on our list of the 100 most famous paintings. Here on this page the Archangel Saint Michael draws the most visitors, and Soul Carried to Heaven is the one ordered most.

How many paintings did Bouguereau make?

He finished 822 known paintings, and where a good part of them are now is unknown. This collection carries 342 of those titles, ready to be painted in oil on canvas.

Where are Bouguereau's originals?

Spread out. Some hang in a museum of fine arts, some are in private hands, and some are lost, since where a good part of the 822 ended up was never recorded. A museum of art can show you the canvas but will not sell it to you, which is the plain reason hand-painted copies exist.

Why did Bouguereau fall out of fashion and then come back?

By the early twentieth century his art had fallen out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes, after a career in which collectors in France and in the United States paid top prices and the Impressionist avant-garde reviled him. That turn took decades rather than a single year. A revival of interest in figure painting in the 1980s led to his rediscovery, and our own traffic shows where taste sits now: the angels and the shepherdesses are opened and ordered every week, museum fashion or not.

What is academic painting?

The manner taught by the French Academy: careful drawing, old stories told in modern terms, and a finish with no brushwork you can see. Bouguereau, born in 1825, was the salon painter of his generation in that 19th century style, and that is what the Impressionists set themselves against.

Which William Bouguereau should I start with?

If you want the picture art history still argues about, take Nymphs and Satyr. If you want an angel, take Soul Carried to Heaven or Regina Angelorum. If you want one quiet figure on a wall, take the shepherdess.

Are these original William-Adolphe Bouguereau paintings?

No. Each one is a new painting, made by hand in oil on canvas after Bouguereau's composition. It is a reproduction, not a print, and not the original canvas.

What sizes and frames can I order?

Every Bouguereau reproduction here comes in seven sizes, with an optional frame. You see a photo of the finished oil painting and approve it before it ships, worldwide shipping is free, and returns stay open for 90 days.