Large Antique French 19th Century Oil Canvas Painting "Hearts Awakening" Cherubs by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1892

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A fine late 19th century oil on canvas painting, circa of William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905). Oil on canvas painting depicting … Read more A fine late 19th century oil on canvas painting, circa of William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905). Oil on canvas painting depicting a woman with two cherubs in a garden. After Bouguereau's 'The Heart's Awakening,' 1892, signed lower right.
The painting depicts a beauful maiden seated in a bucolic setting and wearing diaphanous robes, she has both hands crossed over her heart, and is flanked with two winged cherubs. The painting is an allegorical work, meant to signify the burgeoning love of a young woman.
The painting is of large size and is very finely painted, it is housed in the original gilded gesso and limewood frame, both the painting and frame are in excellent condition. This very beautiful painting is ready to hang on your wall.

Bouguereau executed this painting in the same year as his famous 1892 entry for the Paris Salon, 'Le Guepier', or 'Invading Cupid's Realm'. Both pictures constitute an important part of the artist's oeuvre which Bouguereau referred to as tableaux de fantasie. These paintngs describe the artist's response to the classical poems dedicated to Eros and Psyche. These myths seem to have been the perfect subject for Bouguereau's art of beautiful forms and harmonious colors. The fantasies are also perhaps, in part, reveries since the artist was known to keep the poetry of Ovid and Virgil at his bedside.
Marius Vachon states in his monograph on the artist:
"Les fantaisies qui ont pour titre: Le Guepier, L'Assaut, La Lutte, Chanson's de Printemps, Eveil du Coeur, etc., etc., ont été imaginées, nullement pour éveiller de isées voluptueuses, mais en vue de l'invention d'arrangements, gracieux et delicats."
Translated as;
"The fantasies entitled: The Wasp's Nest, The Assault, The Struggle, Spring Songs, Awakening of the Heart, etc., etc., were conceived not at all to arouse voluptuous desires, but with a view to inventing graceful and delicate arrangements"

It is not surprising to learn of Bouguereau's great admiration for the painter Boucher who also found in the subject of Eros expression of infinite pictorial variations. Compared to Boucher, however, Bouguereau's paintngs exhibit a characteristic restraint and decorum, and they are rarely narrative but, rather, emotive and evocative like the poetry from which the artist drew his inspiration.
The technical precision of the painting's execution combined with the perfect balance of color support Bouguereau's well-deserved reputation as being one of the most revered French academic painters of the late 19th century. See less