Equality Before Death

until 1846

Thirty-three portraits in three months — to fund the move to Paris

To fund the move to Paris William paints portraits to order: his uncle Eugène finds clients, and in three months 33 portraits are made, earning 900 francs. All are unsigned and only one has been traced; by some accounts he also designed labels for jam jars for merchants.

March – April 1846

Moving to Paris: Picot’s studio and the École des Beaux-Arts

In March 1846 the twenty-year-old William arrives in Paris and lodges at the Hôtel Corneille at 5 rue Corneille; in April he enters François Picot’s studio and, on his recommendation, the École des Beaux-Arts. To supplement his formal training in drawing he attends anatomical dissections and studies historical costumes and archaeology.

1846–1850 · Formazione

Beaux-Arts de Paris

1848 · Premio

Prix de Rome

1848–1850

The Prix de Rome: three attempts

In April 1848 Bouguereau enters the Prix de Rome competition for the first time, but soon riots break out in Paris and he enrols in the National Guard; he fails to win in 1848 (third place by some accounts, second prize by others) or in 1849. In 1850 his “Zenobia Found on the Banks of the Araxes” wins a joint first prize: it receives fewer votes than Paul Baudry’s work, but because of the revolution of 1848 no one was sent to Italy and a vacancy has arisen at the French Academy in Rome.

1850

The Salon of 1850: attacks on “Dante and Virgil”

The large canvas “Dante and Virgil in Hell” (281 × 225 cm), apparently inspired by Delacroix’s painting of the same subject, is meant to surpass Delacroix in the rendering of passions, and its naturalism to make viewers believe in the cruelty of the forces ruling Hell; at the Salon of 1850 it provokes attacks from critics and the disgust of the public.