Images(2)

A Young Girl in Profile

Artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau French, 1825–1905

Date1881

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions15 3/4 × 12 3/4 × 3/4 in. (40 × 32.4 × 1.9 cm)
frame: 22 1/8 × 19 1/4 × 2 1/4 in. (56.2 × 48.9 × 5.7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineBequest of Joan Huntley

Object number2021.15.1

On View

On view

Label TextThis painting showcases Bouguereau’s careful attention to the sitter’s youthful features, such as the gentle curve of her cheek and the fine texture of her hair. Despite the French Academy’s declining influence toward the end of the nineteenth century, the persistent success of Bouguereau’s smoothly painted images demonstrates the resilience of the academic style.

He completed this figure study with the intention of including the girl’s likeness in larger paintings depicting the French countryside and its inhabitants. While many nineteenth-century painters emphasized the intense labor and socioeconomic inequality of France’s rural populations, Bouguereau reinforced narratives of pastoral tranquility and innocence in his images.
[M. Frederick, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]ProvenanceCreated Paris or La Rochelle, 1881; probably collection of the artist; [possibly offered by the artist for Herpin, Rougeron, and Hue sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 23–24, 1881, no. 43, as Une Figure/Tête d’enfant] [1]. Private collection, South America, until 2016; [Schiller & Bodo European Paintings, New York, 2016]; Forsum Investment Company on behalf of Dr. Joan Huntley, Chapel Hill, NC, 2016–2019; bequeathed to NCMA, 2019.

[1] The annotated version of the catalogue in BnF Paris specifies the subject as “Une Figure. de fillette”
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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