- 13
William Bouguereau
Description
- William-Adolphe Bouguereau
- Le sommeil
- signed W-BOUGUEREAU and dated 1864 (upper left)
- oil on canvas
- 60 1/2 by 47 in.
- 153.7 by 119.4 cm
Provenance
Collection of M. Paturle
John Levy Galleries, New York (and sold, American Art Association, April 27, 1933, lot 17, illustrated)
Nicholas Acquavella, New York
Private Collection, United States
John Mulcahy, Ashford Castle, Cong, Ireland
Hammer Galleries, New York
Borghi Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above, 1984
Exhibited
Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1867, no. 74
New York, John Levy Gallery, Back to Bouguereau, December 1932
New York, Borghi Gallery, Exposition Bouguereau, 1984
Literature
Charles Vendryès, Dictionnaire illustré des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1885, p. 27
Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 147
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. 66
Damien Bartoli with Fred Ross, William Bouguereau, Catalogue Raisonné of His Painted work, New York, 2010, p. 78, no. 1864/03, illustrated p. 78; and in the revised 2014 edition, p. 78, no. 1864/03, illustrated p. 78
Damien Bartoli and Frederick Ross, William Bouguereau, his life and works, New York, 2010, p. 152 illustrated p. 160, pl. 62; and in the revised 2014 edition, p. 152 illustrated p. 160, pl. 62
Condition
"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."
Catalogue Note
Although these three figures seem to radiate light, at Bouguereau's hand the sacred subject is secularized. He creates a dream-like universe of peace and serenity that is exquisite and transcendent in its beauty. While there are no overt religious references in either painting, the image of the mother and children can be interpreted as a secular portrayal of the Holy Family, in this instance dressed as Italian peasants. Critics of the time recognized the influence of earlier religious works on this secularized subject. Gauthier declared, “There is a great deal of charm in this maternal grouping, which could easily become a Sainte Famille,” and in his annual article on the 1864 Salon, Paul de Saint-Victor described the painting as, “a Roman peasant holds a naked child between her knees. She places a finger on her lips and signals to the little boy, who carries cherries in the fold of his raised shirt, without waking his sleeping little brother. These three white figures, composed and grouped like a working-class Holy Family, are modeled on a very clear format, with a remarkable sureness of handling” (as translated from the French, Baschet, p. 28). Indeed, Bouguereau’s Sainte Famille of 1863 (see lot 10 for a related sketch) which brought him success and was acquired for the Emperor's Imperial Collection and hung in the Palais des Tuileries, clearly gave inspiration to La Sommeil (it is worth noting that his other Salon submission of 1863, Les remords d'Oreste, was perceived as unsaleable at the time).
Bouguereau submitted Le sommeil to the Salon of 1864 alongside his Baigneuse (Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent) and their exhibition represented his departure from the "Grand Genre" of history painting and a pivot towards more anecdotal and pastoral scenes. By rendering these paintings on a grand scale, he granted familiar subjects a heroic dimension that was previously reserved for historical or mythological subjects, and the formula brought him extraordinary success for which he remains celebrated to this day. Interestingly, the réduction of this painting (sold in these rooms, May 9, 2013, lot 15) presents the figure group in a dimly lit interior, while in the primary version, the present work, the family is situated in a sunny courtyard, under a grapevine, with a figure descending a staircase in the distance.
Bouguereau was a consummate painter and draftsman and he honed a reputation for unparalleled excellence in his workmanship. In discussing the artist’s process, an American columnist noted that "nothing does he but paint from dawn until eve, winter and summer. Painting is his society, theatre, vacation. His canvases are his domestic pets. In becoming a master — in preparing to create a whole world of Bouguereau unreality — this gentle woodman starved in Paris in the approved art-student style" (Stuart Oliver Henry, Hours with Famous Parisians, Chicago, 1897, p. 213). The idiosyncratic "world of Bouguereau unreality" had a spectacular allure, particularly for American collectors, and the artist's dealer at the time, the legendary Durand-Ruel, had been cultivating that interest and guiding his output. Robert Isaacson writes that "Durand-Ruel introduced Bouguereau to one of his painters, Hugues Merle (see lot 11), who was having an enormous success with compositions of the mother and baby, brother and sister sort... Bouguereau was urged to try his hand at this genre, and his success with it is part of history" (Robert Isaacson, "Collecting Bouguereau in England an America," William Bouguereau: 1825 – 1905, exh. cat., Paris, 1984, p. 104).