William Bouguereau

Goupil & Cie., Paris (acquired directly from the artist in June 1879, no. 13619)
Knoedler & Co., New York (acquired from the above in June 1879)
Mrs. Grace Wacker, Chicago 
Thence by descent

Charles Vendryès, Dictionnaire illustré des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1885, p. 59
Franqueville, William Bouguereau, n.p. n.d., p. 370
Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 153
Mark Steven Walker, "William-Adolphe Bouguereau, A Summary Catalogue of the Paintings," William-Adolphe Bouguereau, L'Art Pompier, exh. cat., Borghi & Co., New York, 1991, p. 71
Damien Bartoli with Frederick Ross, William Bouguereau, Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work, New York, 2010, p. 189, no. 1879/05, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work has been quite recently restored. Although the edges in this frame are slightly uneven, the painting is otherwise in very good condition. The canvas has been lined some years ago and the lining is still effective. The only visible retouches under ultraviolet light are beneath the child's elbow on the right, where some slight thinness seems to have developed in the undergrowth.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

During his lifetime, William Bouguereau enjoyed extraordinary commercial success, with wealthy patrons and devoted followers in Europe and America. Like many of his paintings, La Tasse de Lait was sent to his dealer Goupil's New York associates, Knoedler & Co., shortly after leaving the artist's studio, and sold to a prominent American family. His success was largely due to his skill as a draftsman and painter, but encouraged by the popular taste of the art-buying public. In the 1850s, Bouguereau, at the encouragement of his then dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, decided to shift his choice of subject away from large religious commissions and toward the type of image easily consumed by his wealthy collectors. In particular, he embraced the late nineteenth century fascination with peasant life and the present work, La Tasse de Lait, painted in 1879, is a superb example.

As a leading academic artist, Bouguereau contributed to the Paris Salon for over five decades and in 1879 he presented two paintings along very different themes. One of the works has joined his most widely recognized and critically-acclaimed at the time of exhibition, the spectacular myth and legend painting, Naissance de Vénus (1879, Musée d’Orsay, Paris). Bathed in the soft light of dawn, Venus (whose pose is borrowed from Ingres) rises from the sea, surrounded by putti, nymphs and satyrs who trumpet her arrival with conch shells. Its theatricality is unparalleled. An artistic tour-de-force, it was praised by critics at the Salon for its bold composition, heroic scale and supernatural perfection; in fact, its ‘perfection’ was the only point of contention for critics, who found Bouguereau’s idealization of nature bothersome.

His other Salon entry of 1879, Jeunes Bohemiennes, provided an appropriately secular counterpoint to the extravagantly divine carousel of La naissance de Vénus. It is a prime example of Bouguereau’s peasant and gypsy paintings, which he continued to paint throughout his career. In it, a mother and child stand within a vast landscape and confront the viewer by staring out of the picture plane with a sincere and penetrating gaze. The model for the child appears in a number of other works by Bouguereau, including Au bord du Ruisseau (1879, Private Collection), the present work, and a related finished head study for the present work (Private Collection, United States). The dark curls of hair that frame her face and her distinct facial features are immediately recognizable.