3-078-036 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Little Tramps" - by M. Bouguereau, in the Paris Salon, 1890. Engraving of a painting. 'M. William Bouguereau belongs to the group of French artists who have remained firm in their allegiance to the "Old Salon," where this work appears...He showed no special aptitude for painting in early life, and was placed by his family in a house of business at Bordeaux. While here he was accustomed to attend, for a couple of hours each day, the drawing school of M. Alaux, and at the end of a year he carried off the prize for which the regular students had competed in vain...one day W. Bouguereau turned his back upon Bordeaux and its houses, and...painted the portraits of the rustic population to such good effect that he was able to start for Paris with 900f. in his pocket...His works are always distinguished by their finished design and the accuracy of the drawing, and in his rendering of the pearl-like transparency of flesh he has few equals. It is objected to Bouguereau that his peasants are wanting in rusticity, and that their delicate faces and shoulders show no trace of weather or labour - but it is as a classicist, not as a realist, that he has won his reputation - and few French artists can rival the exquisite completeness of his work'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.