Song of the Nightingale by Bouguereau

Song of the Nightingale by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1895, is an oil painting on canvas of a seated woman, barefoot in pale blouse and deep black skirt. For much of history the song of the nightingale bird has been both a sign of lament and a symbol for the poet, often used in ancient epic tragedy. Bouguereau’s classically realistic, traditional technique contrasts the glow of the woman’s skin and blouse against the lush blue-black of her skirt, evoking the coloration of a bird. William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 - 1905) was a French painter who trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the Villa Medici in Rome. He exhibited with great success in the French Salon and became one of most renowned and wealthy artists of his era. Bouguereau worked in the French Academic tradition, a school of late 19th century modern painters who concentrated on the human figure and classical subjects in highly polished works of optical realism. His main interest was the female figure, usually rendered in classical, finely drawn contours, in subjects that were often sentimental. Bouguereau's reputation diminished greatly in the 20th century with the rise of Modernism, but interest in his traditional figurative paintings has surged again in recent years.