The Captive

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The Captive

Artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905)

Date1891

DimensionsPainting: 51 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. (130.8 x 77.5 cm)
Framed: 68 x 46 3/4 x 6 in. (172.7 x 118.7 x 15.2 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Sidney Spitzer in memory of General Ceilan M. Spitzer

Object number

1923.25

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 32

Label TextFor me a work of art must be an elevated interpretation of nature. The search for the ideal has been the purpose of my life. William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a foremost practitioner of French academic art, which advocated highly finished images and adherence to classical ideals of anatomy and perspective, clear contours, and precise drawing. This view of a winged child—an angel? a fairy?—contemplating a captured butterfly is a combination of the real and the ideal: it retains the sense of the model posing in the studio, while also evoking an imagined, beautiful world in which otherworldly beings interact with nature and humanity (represented by the stone balustrade). One of the most successful French artists of the 19th century, Bouguereau exhibited at the Salon—the annual, state-sponsored juried art exhibition in Paris—from 1854 until his death in 1904. His dominance helped make him a symbol of the “official” art against which avant-garde movements like the Impressionists rebelled.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 44, October 1923, repr.

Godwin, Blake-More, Catalogue of European Paintings, Toledo, 1939, p. 216, repr. p. 217.

"Vernissage," Art News, vol. 41, no. 17, Jan. 15-31, 1943, repr. p. 7.

Gowans, A., The Restless Art: A History of Painters and Painting, Philadelphia, 1966, pp. 121-122, fig. 16C.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 29, pl 269.

Bassham, Ben L., The Theatrical photographs of Napoleon Sarony, Kent, 1978, p. 20, repr. fig. 10.

Bartoli, Damien with Frederick C. Ross, William Bouguereau: Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work, New York: Antique Collectors' Club, 2010, no. 1891/13, col. repr. p. 277. Paul, Tanya, Thomas, Stanton, Bouguereau & America New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2019, p. 158, repr. 159

Exhibition HistoryMilwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Memphis, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art, Bouguereau & America, Feb. 14, 2019-Sept. 1, 2020.