In the studios of Paris: William Bouguereau & his American students

Abstract

William Bouguereau (1825-1905) was a highly important and influential French academic painter, who taught a long succession of gifted students, primarily at the private Academie Julian in Paris. Among them, Bouguereau instructed more than two hundred young American artists. In the Studios of Paris provides a unique look at the history of Parisian art education during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and its profound influence on American art. This landmark publication, the first to focus exclusively on Bouguereau and his American pupils, presents sixty-five paintings, drawings, and prints by the master and eleven of his most prominent students, including Eanger Irving Couse, Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau, and Robert Henri. A series of carefully researched essays place the artists' work in historical context and discuss various American responses to Bouguereau's painting and pedagogical techniques, along with the subsequent reception and collecting of their work in the United States.