William Bouguereau

Goupil et Cie., Paris (acquired directly from the artist on December 2, 1885)
Dock & Lietricht, Paris in December 1885 (acquired from the above)
E. Leroy et Cie, Paris
Charles Clark, New York, by 1913
Sale: American Art Association, New York, April 14-15, 1913, lot 124, illustrated
D. G. Dery, Catasauqua, Pennsylvania
Sale: American Art Galleries, The Collection of D. G. Dery, New York, April 19-20, 1923, lot 72, illustrated
Governor Alvin Fuller, Massachusetts
Possibly, Jacob Wertheim 
Sale: American Art Association, New York, January 10, 1936, lot 77, illustrated, as Music of the Seas
Private Collection, Kentucky
Sale: Parke-Bernet, New York, February 20-21, 1946, lot 38, illustrated
Andrew Stone, Los Angeles

The artist's account ledger book, as Femme Nu au Coquillage
Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris 1900, p. 156
Chuck Wingis, “A Collection of Bouguereau, All But Forgotten Genius," American Collector, May 1979, vol. 10, illustrated
Mark Steven Walker, A Summary Catalogue of the Paintings, William Adolphe Bouguereau: L'Art Pompier, Paris, 1991, p. 72

Beginning around 1880, Bouguereau gradually began to favor the production of paintings inspired by Greek and Roman mythology and poetry.  He called these pictures Tableaux de Fantasie or Paintings of the Imagination, and retained a fondness for the genre for the rest of his career.  Femme au coquillage, or Girl with a Shell, belongs to the important category of “bathers” which appeared throughout Bouguereau's oeuvre beginning with Le Bain, a decorative panel of 1855, and continuing until L’Oceanide of 1904, the last work the artist submitted to the Salon.

This painting offers a credible example of the “anachronistic antique” which was dear to the artist’s heart.  Bouguereau gives free rein to sensuality by choosing a superb and original pose for his model, imbued with the classical grace of the Grand Tradition, and offering us his personal interpretation of the Venus Callipyge.

Femme au Coquillage was painted in 1885 in Paris, as a letter from Bouguereau to George Vicens indicates, “Since my return (from La Rochelle), I have placed four paintings at St. Vincent-de-Paul, you know them, then I finished the five paintings from La Rochelle and the two that I commenced in Paris: Love Disarmed and Girl with a Shell.”

This picture marks the second appearance of the young Italian model, Antoinette Cataldi, who had already posed for Bouguereau’s Woman and Captive Love.  Admittedly, the artist modified the model’s hair color, but he maintained approximately the same pose.

Girl with a Shell once belonged to the Hollywood writer-producer-director Andrew Stone, who rejected Salvador Dali’s offer to purchase the picture (Wingis, n. p.).