Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1825-1905) was a successful French painter in the academic style. He worked his way through the Ecole des Beaux Arts, managing at the same time to master all the techniques of nineteenth century academic painting. He became a very prolific and popular painter, producing hundreds of works. He was a systematic and somewhat methodical painter, carefully researching a subject before producing a painting of it.

Below are examples of his work. As you study these images, think about what he assumed about what art was like and what he valued in art. To get at this, you might want to compare it with art today. You can think about contrasts to images in official (museum and gallery) art in the 20th and 21st centuries or to images in popular culture today. (If nothing comes to mind, try googling some contemporary images.)