WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU | Le voeu

Sale: Christie's, Paris, March 29, 2012, lot 187, illustrated (as Mother and child praying and subsidiary study of hand and seated child)
Acquired at the above sale 

Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 123, illustrated 

This beautifully rendered drawing, which until 2012 was known only from its illustration in Marius Vachon’s W. Bouguereau (published in 1900), captures the tender embrace of the Enfant malade (1867, Philadelphia Museum of Art, also known as The Thank Offering). The background is left unrealized and small details, such as the chair leg, are not fully executed. Bouguereau’s focus is on the figural details, as evidenced by the quickly rendered hand study at upper left, the attention to the faces and especially the mother’s hands.