The Little Shepherdess by Bouguereau

The Little Shepherdess by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1889, is an oil on canvas full length figure painting of a little girl tending sheep, holding her staff over her shoulders. The classical, academic realism of the shepherdess’ bare feet, skirt, shawl, standing in a pasture with cows grazing in the distance, creates a timeless image of dignity and purity. 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.