The Heart's Awakening by Bouguereau Postcard

L'Eveil du Coeur (The Heart's Awakening) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1892, is an oil on canvas painting of a seated young woman grasping at her heart while a pair of winged cupids whisper omens of love in her ears, set in a lush garden landscape. The woman’s dress is reminiscent of the costume of ancient classical Greece, white with brilliantly coloured skirt. Tiny yellow and poink flowers sprout at the subject’s feet. Bouguereau paints a memorable image of the stirrings of young love that references the poets of classical antiquity. 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 modern art, but interest in his traditional figurative paintings has surged again in recent years.