A characteristic subject and Bouguereau's polished academic technique are showcased in "The Lit-tle Shepherdess,” 1889. The Philbrook Museum of Art.
:Toward the end of the Nineteenth Century, up-and-coming American artists headed to Paris, the world art capital, seeking to gain technical proficiency in drawing and painting and to enhance their reputations. At least 220 studied with academic master William Bouguereau (sometimes cited as William-Adolphe or Adolphe-William) (1825–1905), a respected teacher and commercially and critically successful artist. According to James Peck, Ruth G. Hardman curator of European and American art at the Philbrook Museum of Art, they were "attracted by his larger-than-life personality and his excellent reputation in both France and America during the second half of the Nineteenth Century. For students looking for an exemplar of the established French academic system, no better master could be found."
Energetic, outgoing and generous, a major figure in the international art world and a favorite of American collectors, Bouguereau considered teaching a sacred duty. He gave freely of his time, advice and friendship to his students, associations that kept him young at heart throughout his life. Indeed, he married a former American pupil, Elizabeth Jane Gardner, following a long engagement.
After establishing his reputation as one of France's premier history painters, in the last three decades of his career Bouguereau made a lot of money painting sweet, sentimental images, such as "The Young Shepherdess," 1885, "Young Girl," 1886, and "The Little Shepherdess," 1889. These genre works were popular with US collectors.
William Bouguereau's "Self Portrait,” 1879, suggests the intensity and charisma he brought to his role as a popular and influential teacher. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
As a teacher, Bouguereau instructed his pupils in the tenets of his polished academic style with an emphasis on classical composition, accurate draftsmanship and drawing and painting from live models. Student Jefferson D. Chalfant (1856–1931), who later established a successful career in Wilmington, Del., captured the look of a modeling session in "Bouguereau's Atelier at the Academie Julian," 1891.
C. Arnold Slade (1882–1961) showed that the scene had changed little more than a quarter century later in "Atelier at the Academie Julian, Paris," 1907. A Massachusetts native, Slade worked on both sides of the Atlantic and was famous in his day for his brilliantly colored landscapes, genre scenes, biblical depictions, World War I pictures and portraits of Washington, D.C., bigwigs.
Examples of student drawings in the exhibition, such as E.I. Couse's "Academic Drawing: Male," circa 1890–91, reflect Bouguereau's emphasis on depictions of the human body.
