WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU | L'AMOUR AU REPOS

Young's Art Gallery, Chicago (acquired in 1954)

Schweitzer Galleries, New York (as Nude Child Seated)

Acquired from the above 

Braun & Clément, Oeuvres choisies des maîtres anciens et moderns, 1907, n.p., no. 5449, illustrated 

Damien Bartoli and Frederick C. Ross, William Bouguereau, Catalogue Raisonné of His Painted Work, New York, 2010, p. 355, no. 1904/03, illustrated; and in the revised 2014 edition, p. 355, no. 1904/03, illustrated

By 1900 William Bouguereau experimented with a painterly technique used to render his iconic subjects, from mythological fantasies to peasant children. In the present work and select others of the period, the artist employed a brush heavy with pigment in loose, free-moving strokes, building lush, dream-like backgrounds to frame a brilliant Academic study of the human form. Many works of this era were allegorical motifs, following his tableaux de fantasies of the 1880s and 1890s which depicted nymphs or cherubic youths. As suggested by the present work’s title, L’amour au repos, Bouguereau originally painted the child resting on a carved-stone capital as Cupid. The theme of love is pervasive in Bouguereau's oeuvre, particularly as personified by Cupid, the mischievous son of the goddess Venus. Bouguereau explored many different interpretations of the mythical figure, and must have recognized his popular appeal; the present work captured his innocence with a sweet, angelic expression, his curls framed by a soft halo of light. Although missing from the present work, Cupid's characteristic wings are visible in a Braun & Clement photograph taken soon after it was painted in 1904. When L’amour au repos was next photographed in preparation for its 1954 sale at Youngs’s Art Gallery in Chicago (which sold several of the artist’s paintings to midwestern collectors in the early to mid-twentieth century), the young god of love was now without his wings; the choice to “humanize” the subject was perhaps the direction of an earlier owner. No matter the motivation, the earthbound subject is sensitively portrayed, and his realistic, languid pose, soft smile, and bright blue eyes continue to convey a peaceful, innocent figure of childhood, beloved by the artist and his patrons.