Bouguereau, Adolphe William (1825-1905)

French academic painter. His subjects were historical and mythological. He was highly respected in his day, though not by the Impressionists, for whom he was the embodiment of insipid middle-class taste.

Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle. He studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris 1846-50, when he won the Prix de Rome. This enabled him to study in Italy until 1855. In 1847 he began to exhibit regularly at the Salon. In 1855 he exhibited The Martyr's Death (the body of St Cecilia borne to the Catacombs). Critics and supporters alike saw him as a leading exponent of academicism.