Young Mother Contemplating Two Embracing Children by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau
1825-1905 | French


Jeune mère contemplant deux enfants qui s'embrassent
(Young Mother Contemplating Two Embracing Children)

Signed “W-Bouguereau” (bottom right, 1861 date now obliterated)
Oil on canvas

William Bouguereau's influence on 19th-century art is profound, earning him a cherished place in the French Academy. His frequent exhibitions at the Paris Salon led to the event being colloquially known as “Le Salon Bouguereau.” Young Mother Contemplating Two Embracing Children stands out as an extraordinary work among his oeuvre, epitomizing the pastoral ideal and the classical grandeur inherent in Bouguereau’s oeuvre.

Bouguereau’s unparalleled ability to depict the moods and personalities of his subjects within classical settings is evident in this work. Influenced by the great Neoclassical artist Ingres, Bouguereau’s technique demonstrates an exceptional degree of finish and luminous coloration, characteristics of his prestigious education at the École Royale des Beaux-Arts. His portraits, especially those of young women and cherubs in idyllic natural settings, are among his most cherished works, with this being a particularly exquisite example.

In this composition, a classical beauty lounges in a mossy grove accompanied by her twin children, one fair and the other dark. Bouguereau displays his extraordinary mastery of dramatic lighting, with the mother cast in a cool shadow beneath the trees while the cherubs shine under a bright light in the foreground. The intricate rendering of the fabrics and the radiant skin of the figures imbues the scene with a luminous vitality that seems to leap off the canvas.

The classical ideal and the wonderment of a childhood spent in nature are themes celebrated across Bouguereau's oeuvre, making him an exceptional commercial success in his day. Collectors on both sides of the Atlantic had to wait two to three years to purchase one of his prized paintings. In the 19th century, no American collection would have been complete without a portrait by the French Academic master. Today, his works reside in prestigious museum collections such as the Musée d'Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. Young Mother Contemplating Two Embracing Children is included in the Bouguereau catalogue raisonné as 1861/03. 

Dated 1861

Canvas: 32 1/4” high x 39 3/4” wide (81.92 x 100.97 cm)
Framed: 49 3/8” high x 57” wide x 6“ deep (125.41 x 144.78 x 15.24 cm)

Provenance:
Sold by the artist to Paul Durand-Ruel
Private Collection of John. T. Martin, New York, before 1909
Martin Estate sale by American Art Association of New York, 1909, lot 40 (no illustration, listed as The Twins
C. K. G. Billings, New York, purchased from the above
Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA
Private Collection of Jozeph Szymanski, Pasadena, CA, from 1971
Sale, Sotheby's New York, Nov. 3 1999, catalogue no. 7373, lot no. 55
Private Collection
M.S. Rau, New Orleans


Literature:
Galerie Durand-Ruel stock books
Charles Vendryès, Catalogue illustré des œuvres de W. Bouguereau, Librairie d'Art, Paris, 1885, p. 21
Amable Charles Franquet de Franqueville, "William Bouguereau" in Le Premier Siècle de l'Institut de France, Vol. I, J. Rothschild, Paris, 1895, p. 370 as Jeune mère contemplant enfants
Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, A. Lahure, Paris, 1900, p. 147
Mark Steven Walker, "A Summary Catalogue of the Paintings," in William Adolphe Bouguereau: L'art Pompier, New York, 1991, p. 66
Damien Bartoli and Frederick C. Ross, William Bouguereau: Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work, New York, 2010, p. 67, no. 1861/03 (illustrated