William Bouguereau

Goupil et Cie, Paris, no. 12749 (by 1878)
M. Mastenbroek, The Hague, 1872
Mr. Samuel Avery, aquired from the above, 1872

Admiration Maternelle, or Maternal Admiration, was painted in 1869, shortly after the birth of Bouguereau's third son, Paul.  The artist deploys light to draw the viewer's attention to the child asleep in his mother's arms, as she offers him up for admiration.  Bouguereau 's masterful technique and attention to detail makes this tender moment almost tangible.

"Works depicting 'mother and child' abound in Bouguereau's work, as the 'Virgin and child' theme abounds in Raphael's; it is as though Bouguereau substituted secular versions for the religious conceptions of his illustrious predecessor...In the present work...the mother is a reworking of an 1861 painting The Departure of the Shepherd."  (Louise d'Argencourt, "Catalogue" in William Bouguereau, 1984, p. 178)

Two additional versions of the present work are known.  Bouguereau mentioned the primary version (1.16 x .89 cm) in his notebooks in July 1896.  It was sold to a Mr. Wolf [sic] through Goupil & Cie., Paris.  It later appeared in the checklist of pictures belonging to Catharine Lorillard Wolfe in Edward Strahan's Art Treasures of America (1879, vol. 1, p. 129 as The Mother's Treasure).  The present painting is a reduction by half of the primary version.  It was purchased from the artist by Goupil in 1869 and sold to Mr. Mastenbroek, The Hague in 1872, then resold that same year to Mr. Samuel Avery, the well known American art agent.