La Danse

1851–1854

Through Italy with Curzon: copies of Raphael, Titian, Assisi

At the French Academy in Rome Bouguereau meets G. Boulanger and J. Lenepveu, but becomes closest friends with the landscape painter P. Curzon; together they make many journeys through Italy — Naples, Pompeii, Siena, Perugia, Assisi, Florence, Pisa, Milan, Ravenna. Bouguereau visits almost all the museums and private collections, copies ancient Roman monuments, makes a replica of the complete cycle of frescoes in the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, and copies Raphael’s “Triumph of Galatea” and Titian’s “Triumph of Flora”.

1851–1854

His tastes and the “discovery” of Giotto

In Italy Bouguereau’s tastes take shape: he names Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo as his chief authorities, finds Botticelli too “nervous”, counts Correggio among the geniuses but denies that status to Mantegna, whom he finds “soulless”. In Padua and Assisi he immerses himself in Giotto and discovers in his gestures and faces a link between Proto-Renaissance painting and French gallant painting of the eighteenth century — a “discovery” that will shape his work for the rest of his life and shows in two paintings called “Idyll” (1850 and 1851), reminiscent of Rococo pastorals.

after 1854

After Rome: decorating churches and mansions

On finishing his stay in Rome Bouguereau receives commissions to decorate churches — the life of Saint Louis for a chapel, the lives of Saints Peter and Paul and of John the Baptist for the Parisian church of Saint-Augustin — and the mansions of A. Bartholoni and E. Pereire, for the first of which he paints “Arion on a Sea Horse” and “Bacchante”. These works demonstrate his undoubted ability for monumental painting.

1856

Marie-Nelly Monchablon: a secret liaison with a model

In 1856 Bouguereau begins living with one of his models, the 19-year-old Marie-Nelly Monchablon: the couple keep their liaison secret and live together unmarried, and their first child, Henriette, is born in April 1857. They will marry only on 24 May 1866, and quietly, since many assumed they were already married (other accounts say he married as early as 1856).

1857

The Salon of 1857: a medal, Gautier and Napoleon III’s commissions

The works Bouguereau shows at the Salon of 1857 arouse the enthusiasm of Théophile Gautier and win a medal of honour, above all for the decoration of the Bartholoni mansion. Commissions from Emperor Napoleon III follow: in 1857 an official commission for “The Emperor Visiting the Victims of the Flood at Tarascon in June 1856” (other accounts say the ministry gave this commission in 1856).

late 1850s

Paul Durand-Ruel and genre pictures

His growing family needs a steady income, and it comes from his acquaintance with the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, later the champion of the Impressionists: through him Bouguereau also meets Hugues Merle, who is later often compared with him. Small genre pictures — women in folk costume, family scenes — are in demand, predominate in Durand-Ruel’s own collection and open a new direction in Bouguereau’s work.