The Holy Women at the Sepulcher

Title: Le Saintes Femmes au Tombeau (The Holy Women at the Sepulcher)

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: tbd

Date: 1890

Location: Private Collection

Mark 16: 4-5 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

This painting by Bouguereau has an immediacy and vividness, an seems to have been influenced by photography. The young man in white, only just visible in the light that comes from the tomb, at first seems largely redundant. The first and third women are also well composed, but all the meaning and power of the picture is focused in the central figure, on her astonished face and her clasped hands. But the composition invites us to look beyond just the surface image. We can see a fourth place left available to stand among the women, to peer into the tomb, to see what the three women see. There is a place for us to bear witness if we are willing to take the step forward.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 - August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter. Bouguereau was a staunch traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects. Toward the end of his career, at the same time that he was admired by the public, he was also impugned by a growing clique of painters and writers of the new generation who considered themselves progressive, and who believed that rebellion against traditional values in painting was their raison d'etre. Bouguereau and his colleagues were rapidly labeled as reactionaries in the face of this growing cult of the new, found first in Impressionism and Post Impressionism. His fate was to be much like that of Rembrandt, whose work was also ridiculed and banished from museums and official art circles for the hundred years following his death.

The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Title: The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 212 x 309 cm

Date: 1880

Location: Cathedral of La Rochelle, La Rochelle, France.

Mark 15:15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Unlike Jesus, Barabbas was a violent revolutionary, but as he did not claim to be king or boast such a large following as Jesus, Pilate may have been willing to appease the crowd. Jesus, like many political prisoners before and after him, is summarily tortured and humiliated.

"The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ” is one of Bouguereau's greatest religious masterpieces. Surrounded by his torturers and a group of curious spectators, the pain of Christ's torment is almost palpable. To the left a young boy shelters his eyes from the horrid sight by turning his back and pressing himself against his mother. To the right, just above Christ's head, a baby looks down at him sympathetically while hoisted up on his father's shoulders. This life size masterpiece is every bit as great any of the religious works done by Renaissance masters, the harmonious interplay of drawing, paint handling, composition, and perspective combining for a powerful emotional thrust.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter. A staunch traditionalist, his realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects. His almost photo-realistic style was popular with rich art patrons, and he was very famous in his time, but today his subject matter and technique receive relatively little attention compared to the popularity of the Impressionists.

The Virgin with Angels

Title: The Virgin with Angels (Regina Angelorum)

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 285 x 185 cm

Date: 1900

Location: Musée du Petit Palais, Paris

Mary, mother of Jesus, has taken on many aspects during the thousands of years that have passed since she walked the earth: Mother of God, ever virgin, Mother of the Church, Mediatrix, Co-Redemptrix, etc. The image of a woman crowned with twelve stars first appears in Revelation 12:1-5, where she gives birth to a male child, portending the rise of Satan as the great dragon and the final war in heaven.

All Bouguereau’s works were executed in several stages involving an initial oil sketch followed by numerous pencil drawings taken from life. Some critics contend that his prevalent use and idealization of children is often responsible for the sentimentality that mars many of his works, but the Christ child here is both natural and divine.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter. A staunch traditionalist, his realistic genre paintings and modern interpretations of Classical subjects featured a heavy emphasis on the female body. Although his work was widely collected by the English and Americans in his lifetime, Bouguereau’s reputation in France was more equivocal—indeed quite low—in his later years. Bouguereau’s detractors have unkindly likened his Madonnas to perfumed Ary Scheffers.