istocratic residences,
deriving inspiration from the frescoes which he had seen at Pompeii and
Herculaneum, and which had already suggested his "Idyll" (1853). He also
began in 1847 to exhibit regularly at the Salon. "The Martyr's Triumph,"
the body of St Cecilia borne to the catacombs, was placed in the
Luxembourg after being exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1855; and in
the same year he exhibited "Fraternal Love," a "Portrait" and a
"Study." The state subsequently commissioned him to paint the emperor's
visit to the sufferers by the inundations at Tarascon. In 1857
Bouguereau received a first prize medal. Nine of his panels executed in
wax-painting for the mansion of M. Bartholomy were much
discussed--"Love," "Friendship," "Fortune," "Spring," "Summer,"
"Dancing," "Arion on a Sea-horse," a "Bacchante" and the "Four Divisions
of the Day." He also exhibited at the Salon "The Return of Tobit" (now
in the Dijon gallery). While in antique subjects he showed much grace of
design, in his "Napoleon," a work of evident labour, he betrayed a lack
of ease in the treatment of modern costume. Bouguereau subsequently
exhibited "Love Wounded" (1859), "The Day of the Dead" (at Bordeaux),
"The First Discord" (1861, in the Club at Limoges), "The Return from the
Fields" (a picture in which Theophile Gautier recognized "a pure feeling
for the antique"), "A Fawn and Bacchante" and "Peace"; in 1863 a "Holy
Family," "Remorse," "A Bacchante teasing a Goat" (in the Bordeaux
gallery); in 1864 "A Bather" (at Ghent), and "Sleep"; in 1865 "An
Indigent Family," and a portrait of Mme Bartholomy; in 1866 "A First
Cause," and "Covetousness," with "Philomela and Procne"; and some
decorative work for M. Montlun at La Rochelle, for M. Emile Pereire in
Paris, and for the churches of St Clotilde and St Augustin; and in 1866
the large painting of "Apollo and the Muses on Olympus," in the Great
Theatre at Bordeaux. Among other works by this artist may be mentioned
"Between Love and Riches" (1869), "A Girl Bathing" (1870), "In Harvest
Time" (1872), "Nymphs and Satyrs" (1873), "Charity" and "Homer and his
Guide" (1874), "Virgin and Child," "Jesus and John the Baptist," "Return
of Spring" (which was purchased by an American collector, and was
destroyed by a fanatic who objected to the nudity), a "Pieta" (1876), "A
Girl defending herself from Love" (1880), "Night" (1883), "The Youth of
Bacchus" (1884), "Biblis" (1885), "Love Disarmed" (1886), "Love
Victoriou