Les oreades william bouguereau biography
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Les Oréades
Painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
The Oreads (French: Les Oréades) is an oil painting by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, painted in 1902. Its dimensions are 236 × 182 cm.[citation needed]
In 2009 the descendants of the artist donated the artwork to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where it is now exhibited.[1]
Description
[edit]The Oreads is a mythological painting and it is one of Bouguereau's best-known works. The painting includes many nude females, a characteristic seen in many of Bouguereau's artworks. It is painted in a Neoclassical style which features mythological Roman and Greeknymphs and satyrs.[2]
The Oreads is named after the nymph of the mountains, the Oreads, also known as Orestiads. In Greek mythology, these creatures are led by the Greek Moon goddess of the hunt named Artemis, one of the most venerated ancient Greek deities. In ancient Rome she was known as Diana. Artemis or Diana prefers
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The Writer’s Gaze
As the genius lies on his deathbed, he may be penniless, obscure and defeated, but he is not without hope. He has a vision of the future, many decades away, when some novice, alienated from the canon of the age, will go searching for something more singular, something more truthful, and will brush the dust from one of his works with a thrill of discovery. Perhaps the novice will grow up to be a respected critic and use that influence to redeem the reputation of the dead genius. Or perhaps the novice will guard the discovery as jealously as a lover. Either way, all these years of thankless labour will be vindicated bygd that single moment of revelation, experienced without foreknowledge or prejudice. Not long ago, when inom stood for the first time in the presence of William Bouguereau’s Les Oréades, wondering why it wasn’t one of the most celebrated paintings in the world, I thought maybe Bouguereau could be the genius in this story and I
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Les Oréades (1902)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life, he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. He finished 822 known paintings, but the whereabouts of many are still unknown.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France, on 30 November 1825, into a family of wine and olive oil merchants. The son of Théodore Bouguereau (born 1800) and Marie Bonnin