CMA: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
@cmaeuropepaint.bsky.social
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Sharing public domain works from the Modern European Painting and Sculpture department of Cleveland Museum of Art. Automated #artbot thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social
![Seated on a stone step in the countryside, a young girl has realized that her calling in life is to be an artist. Bouguereau was famous for his innovative depictions of children. In 1900 a critic wrote, "[F]ew artists have represented childhood with more tenderness, charm, and spirit than Bouguereau . . . [H]e has invented the most picturesque, the most pleasing, the most original scenes of an almost endless variety." Bouguereau was no less famous for his remarkably life-like images. Here he convincingly captures the girl's rough clothing, soft skin, and intense gaze. Bouguereau painted this work in La Rochelle, a harbor city on France's west coast. During the later years of his life, Bouguereau—by then wealthy and famous—made a habit of spending summers in La Rochelle. There the artist lived in a mansion he owned near the port, working in a greenhouse he had converted into a studio or in the countryside. While in La Rochelle, Bouguereau chose his models from among farm workers, families of local fishermen, or his own servants.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qcmnzwz6doedpojxjpe2oet6/bafkreibayi7tkuvjy63fr3tnsp44qv7eba2wqhajj33fmbyijpxgdvqsou)
![Mrs. Pearson [possibly Sarah Thompson Pearson]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qcmnzwz6doedpojxjpe2oet6/bafkreibjzh6x7bbewvnrhdyhtaa5xz7pk5qreq5k32ohk5ipeo5mwjhcti)
