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Painting depicting a child wearing a pale blue pinafore dress, seated with their hands clasped on their lap, with a wicker basket of green apples looped around their right arm before a lush green forest backdrop.

The Apples (Les pommes)

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, a highly successful exponent of French academic painting, began his studies in Paris in 1846. He began painting chiefly mythological scenes and later turned to religious subjects. Little Girl with Basket of Apples is characterized by a slick, almost photographic realism and a sentimental approach to his subject. He painted many such genre scenes as this in his garden at La Rochelle using the daughters of local farmers or workmen as models. Working directly from the model, Bouguereau began with pen and pencil drawing, followed by a sketch in grisaille (a painting in shades of gray), and then made a full-scale cartoon in charcoal. When the composition was finally established, he transferred it to canvas. Bouguereau is admired today for his superb technique, although his somewhat saccharine subject matter is not currently in fashion.
Artist
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
(French, 1825 - 1905)
Title
The Apples (Les pommes)
Date
1897
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
25 5/8 x 20 1/8 in. Overall
Credit
Bequest of Harry Steenbock
Accession No.
69.5.2
Classification
Paintings
Geography
France

Related

<span>William-Adolphe Bouguereau created this painting in 1897. Between 1897, when the painting was created and February 1898, Bouguereau sold the painting to the gallery Arthur Tooth &amp; Sons in London. In February 1898, the painting was sold by Arthur Tooth &amp; Sons in London to the gallery M. Knoedler &amp; Co. in New York City, as indicated in Knoedler''s stockbook, where the painting is listed as number 8434, with the title "Market Day." On April 1, 1898, the painting was sold by M. Knoedler &amp; Co. in New York City to Walter G. Oakman, also of New York. It is currently unclear when or how the painting left the Oakman collection. Per the Bouguereau catalogue raisonné, it was then in an as-yet unknown private collection. By 1967, the painting was in the collection of Harry Steenbock of Madison, Wisconsin. In 1969, following Steenbock''s death on December 25, 1967, the painting was bequeathed to the Elvehjem Art Center [now called the Chazen Museum of Art] with life interest granted to his wife, Mrs. Steenbock, also of Madison, Wisconsin. Upon her death in 1990, the painting was transferred from the home of Mrs. Harry Steenbock in Madison, Wisconsin to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called the Chazen Museum of Art]. [Last researched by Chazen staff 28 May 2021] </span>

  • Elvehjem Art Center. "Inaugural Exhibition: 19th & 20th Century Art from Collections of Alumni & Friends." Madison, WI: Regents of the University of Wisconsin, 1970. p. 26, no. 9
  • Vachon, Marius. "W Bouguereau." Paris: A. Lahure, 1900. p. 159
  • Damien Bartoli with Frederick Ross. "William Bouguereau: Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work." New York: Antique Collectors' Club, in cooperation with The Art Renewal Center, 2014. pp. 316-17, cat. no. 1897/05

  • Inaugural Exhibition: 19th & 20th Cen. Art from Collection of Alumni & Friends: Elvehjem Art Center, 9/11/1970–11/8/1970

In this painting, a child figure loops a wicker basket filled to the brim with green apples around their right arm as they sit on a stone step with their hands clasped in their lap. The figure has long, curly brown-blonde hair, tied in a half-up style with a blue bow. Their head is tilted down slightly while looking forward with large, dark eyes. The figure wears a pale blue pinafore dress with a white blouse underneath. Dramatic bright lighting shines on the scene, contrasted by dark shadows on the figure and the folds of their clothing. Behind the figure is a lush forested backdrop filled with leaves of different shades of green and the forms of tree trunks and branches, rendered in less detail than the figure.

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