WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOURGUEREAU (1825-1905)           For this, the first month of the Shadowland Gallery, I decided to focus on the works of one artist in particular, the painter William Adolphe Bouguereau . Born at La Rochelle, France, in 1825, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts (1843-50), and then worked under Picot. He shared the Grand Prix de Rome in 1850 (with Baudry) for his picture Zenobie Found. He followed this with pictures on themes drawn widely from classical mythology, the Bible and from contemporary life. ISome of his more mportant works include St. Cecilia (Triumph of the Martyr) (1855), Philomena and Procne (1861) and The Youth of Bacchus (1885). He was admired for his coloring, modelling and draughtsmanship, and won many honors. Bouguereau's wife and former student, Elizabeth Gardinier Bouguereau (1851-1922) was also an artist, specialising in figure compositions. Bouguerau died in 1905. CUPIDON (1875) This was the painting that first turned me on to the work of Bouguereau. It encompasses a theme that runs through many of his paintings....the juxtaposition of the spiritual and the sensual, or, if you prefer, the sacred and the profane. This angel folds its wings inward and crosses its arms over its chest, emphasising rather than concealing its nakedness. What got me personally was the look on the angel's face (which is probably not all that apparent in this small image). I am still trying to decide if it is a look of innocence or decadence. At any rate, it is probably one of Bouguereau's more popular works and one of my favorite paintings of all time.           DANTE AND VIRGIL IN HELL (1850) Like many artists of his time, Bouguereau had an obvious fascination with the natural human form. As a result, many of his paintings are secular and some are downright sexual (more on this later). However, images of nude females and males often inspire moods other than that of the erotic. In this intense painting, inspired by a scene from Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy", Dante and the poet Virgil stand in the background while the foreground is dominated by the twisted, naked forms of two inhabitants of Hell. The overall atmosphere here seems to me to be one which accentuates the weakness of mortal flesh. The word naked literally means "unprotected", and it seemed to be a popular technique among artists in Bouguereau's day (and indeed, for centuries before) to portray the damned as naked and thereby helpless. Pretty heavy stuff.   YOUNG GIRL DEFENDING HERSELF AGAINST EROS (1880) Bouguereau was a prolific artist (he painted over 700 works in his career) and a good majority of his paintings focused on subjects from mythology, legend and western religious tradition. In this image, Eros, the God of earthly love (a parallel to Cupid) is attempting to "pierce" a young girl (who is nearly nude, see above comment on "Dante & Virgil...") with one of his arrows. The phallic symbolism of the arrow is probably too obvious, but what is perhaps a shade more subtle is the idea here of the loss of innocence through sexual awakening, and a reluctance to face such a powerful transformation (transitional stages in human life are another subject Bouguereau featured in many of his paintings, including The First Kiss, First Caresses, and so on...I encourage you to seek out these works yourself if you are interested in viewing them).                         A SOUL BROUGHT TO HEAVEN (1878) More of the spiritual mixed with the sensual. The person being borne to Heaven by Bouguereau's angels seems to be in a swoon of sorts, her head fallen to one side as if in the drowsiness of sexual arousal, her breasts bare; her hands might be resting between her thighs were it not for the arm of the angel. Yet the almost archetypal figure of light which beckons from the clouds above serves to remind the viewer that this is, after all, a painting of religious nature. It is the "Pre-Raphaelite" sensibilities which Bouguereau espoused that create this uneasy mix of divine and erotic energies. Again, pretty heavy stuff.   INVADING CUPID'S REALM (1892) It has been remarked that Bouguereau paid exquisite attention to color and detail, in the grand tradition of classical artists. In this image, we can see the depiction of what appear to be cherubim (again, parallels between Eros, Cupid and other divine entities with the power to induce passions are evident) surrounding a female figure, the "invader" of the title. The tiny angels of love surround her, and although she raises her arms, it is a receptive gesture rather than a defensive one, as if she iathering the youthful beings to her, reveling in their presence, even as they aim to pierce her with their arrows (see "Young Girl", above). Again, a focus on the themes of the divine and the mortal, although perhaps more subdued than in some of the works shown above.                     FIRST MOURNING (1888) ihad to have at least one more truly "dark" Bouguereau image, and here it is. Poets, artists and songwriters throughout history have all at one time or another linked death with love in some way, Even WIlliam Shakespeare wrote of the orgasm as "the little death", suggesting a connection between the release of sexual energy and the loss of one's lifeforce. In this painting, however, there can be no mistaking the mood. The woman buries her face in her hands; the man turns to comfort her, even as the dead, pale and withered, lies across his knees in the aspect of the final surrender. The loincloth which the dead man wears suggests an allusion to the oft-depicted image of the crucified Christ; the mourners could very well be Mary and Joseph, having just taken the body down from the cross. The barren landscape, the pitiful wrap which clothes the woman, the savagely bleak sky above all combine to give a sense of the primal fear of death which inhabits all living things, as well as the tragedy of dying young (the dead man does not appear to be old by any means) Perhaps it was Bouguereau's way of commenting on the nature of death, which, like love, is often untimely, tragic, and ultimately, fickle.           OTHER ARTISTS:                       H.R.Giger (1940 -                                                                                             >