William Adolph Bouguereau and studio

Knoedler & Co., New York
M. Knoedler & Cie. (by October 1943)
Sigmund Ojerkis, Atlantic City (by 1946)
Hammer Galleries, New York (by November 1950)
Sale, Christie's, New York, May 2, 1979, lot 56 (as The Water Nymph)
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 7, 1998, lot 47, illustrated

J. Baisson, "Le Salon de 1881", Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1881, p. 501 (for a discussion of the Salon version)
Ludovic Baschet, Catalogue illustré des oeuvres de W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1889, pp. 61-62, 64 (as Réduction de l'Aurore)
Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 154 (as L'Aurore. Réduction)
William Bouguereau (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Montreal, Hartford, 1984, p. 64 (for a mention of the Salon version)
Mark Steven Walker, "A Summary Catalogue of the Paintings", in William-Adolphe Bouguereau: L'art pompier (exhibition catalogue), Borghi & Co., New York, 1991-92, pp. 40-41, 82 (for a discussion of the Salon version and an illustration of the ink drawing executed for Baschet's book)
Classical Realism Journal, vol. I, Issue 1, 1993, p. 19 (for an illustration of the Salon version)

The present work is a reduced version of Bouguereau's painting of the same title (measuring 215 by 107 cm.) exhibited at the Salon of 1881.  Following the success of The Birth of Venus, Bouguereau embarked upon a series of four panels representing the hours of the day, which took him four years to complete.  They comprise the present composition of 1881, Dusk (Le crépuscule) of 1882, Night (La nuit) of 1883, and Day (Le jour).  Three of the four panels were exhibited at the Paris Salon, this composition being the first.  The réduction for Dusk (Le crépuscule) was sold in these rooms in October 1990.

Edouard Thierry, writing in 1881, described the composition of L'Aurore as follows:

"M. Bouguereau does not conceive art without grace or grace without decency, and I congratulate him for it.  This year he touches upon Christian poetry and upon pagan poetry, upon the former with Vièrge aux anges, and upon the latter with L'Aurore.  L'Aurore is a nimble figure, half nude, half enveloped by a veil which plays in the air.  She does not fly, she does not walk, but glides upon the surface of a body of calm water, still quiet, and without causing any ripples.  The water remains like a mirror, a mirror barely tarnished by a little morning mist, and to the surface of this mirror rises the reflection of a twin toe coming to caress the other.  As she glides along, the goddess graciously inclines her head towards an arum flower which she approaches with her lips, and sips the dew from the white porcelain cone.  All this is of very pure taste, and beautifully drawn" (Baschet, p. 62).

The main figure in L'Aurore is striking for her sculptural qualities.  Bouguereau was a regular visitor at the studio of sculptor Guillaume Fulconis (1851-1913), and also enjoyed a close professional and personal relationship with sculptor Francisque-Joseph Duret (1804-65), who took Bouguereau under his wing during his early career.  Many of Bouguereau's paintings brilliantly reinterpret the sculptures of Charles-Auguste Arnaud, Joseph Pollet and Jean-Antoin-Marie Idrac in pictorial form.

After 1870, Bouguereau's studio, which included accomplished artists Pierre August Cot, Alfred Henri Bramtot, and Gustave Doyen, participated extensively in the painting of the reduced versions of his Salon works. However, Bouguereau always maintained rigid control over his studio, however, applying the final touches to his works before signing them. In many cases it is almost impossible to differentiate between those areas of the canvas painted by Bouguereau and those worked on by his students, particularly since before adding his signature to any work, Bouguereau would make any corrections he felt were necessary to make the reduction an accurate copy of the original.