William Bouguereau

Goupil & Cie, Paris, no. 3054 (acquired directly from the artist, September 1867, as L'enfant perdu (réduction du no. 2858))
M. Post, The Hague (acquired from the above, April 1869)
Goupil & Cie, The Hague, no. 12748 (acquired April 1878)
Samuel P. Avery, The Hague (acquired from the above, June 1878)
Goupil & Cie, Paris, no. 13728 (acquired from the above, July 1879)
Charles F. Haseltine, Philadelphia (acquired from the above, July 1885 and sold, his sale, William P. Moore Auctioneers, New York, February 15-17, 1887, lot 193, as A Lost Day)
J.J. Gillespie & Co., Pittsburgh
Private Collection (probably acquired from the above)  
Thence by descent

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. 67
Damien Bartoli and Frederick C. Ross, William Bouguereau, Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work, New York, 2010, p. 97, no. 1867/05B; and in the revised 2014 edition, p. 97, no. 1867/05B

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work is clean, varnished and retouched. The panel on which it is painted is unreinforced on the reverse and is flat. The paint layer is stable. There are no retouches in the face of the figure. There is one spot of retouching in the figure's headband on the right side, and a couple of spots in her hair above and below this band on the right. There are no retouches in her neck and none in her hand. There are two small spots of retouching in the sleeve of the elbow on the right, and one in the waistcoat above the hand. There are a couple of small retouches beneath the sleeve in the shadow of the blue dress. In the trees behind the figure, there are a few spots to the immediate left of the head and a line of retouches in the upper left running about an inch and a half. There is an old crack in the panel in the upper center, running about an inch and a half, which has received retouches. There is another old crack in the panel of similar length in the red cloth in the lower center, which has also been retouched. Finally, there is a diagonal restoration in the tree trunk in the upper right. All of these restorations are accurately and concisely applied, and the work is in lovely condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

For every painting William Bouguereau produced, he arduously worked out each detail by making careful drapery studies and drawings of hands, props and facial features, and often tracings, cartoons and oil sketches were used to work out the overall composition. With all of this preparatory work complete, and even after a composition was finished and sold, he would frequently return to the subject and paint a réplique or réduction. These were made throughout his career and are frequently seen in the 1860s, when the present work was painted as a réduction of his larger work Bohémienne au tambour de Basque (1867, Private Collection). The sitter for this work is Carmen d’Agostino, an Italian model who Bouguereau painted on more than one occasion. In the 1850s and early 1860s, the influential art dealers Paul Durand-Ruel and, later, Goupil, were instrumental in steering Bouguereau away from his dramatic religious and Neoclassical scenes towards subjects which held greater commercial appeal.  Peasants, travelers, shepherds and gypsies all provided popular subject matter for artists in the nineteenth century. As more people relocated to industrialized cities, urban audiences viewed their pastoral counterparts with fascination and probably envied what they perceived to be a humble, uncomplicated and more gratifying way of life. As Fronia Wissman writes: “City dwellers, from the time of Theocritus in the early third century B.C., have viewed people living in the country with a mixture of alarm and envy. In the pastoral tradition the peasant was seen to possess a simple and honest character, living an equally simple life, in tune with nature and apart from, even ignorant of, artifice” (Fronia E. Wissman, Bouguereau, San Francisco, 1996, p. 46). In his tireless quest for beauty, armed with an unrivaled technical virtuosity, Bouguereau has rendered an idealized vision of a young bohémienne lost in thought.