William Bouguereau

Arthur Tooth & Son, London, November 7, 1895 (acquired directly from the artist, titled Trilby)
Sale: Sothebys, New York, October 28, 2003, lot 36, illustrated 
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 159
Mark Steven Walker, A Summary Catalogue of the Paintings, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, L'Art Pompier, New York, 1991, p. 74

In Le Gué, Bouguereau leads the viewer into the timeless rural world that he cherished throughout his life, from which he crafted innumerable ingenious variations.  As early as 1863, Bouguereau sought inspiration from the country life that he had known as a youth.  Bouguereau interpreted rustic life in his usual idealized manner, keenly aware of the public demand for his work and the favorable critical reaction it received.  In the current composition, a young shepherdess tentatively prepares to cross a ford.  Bouguereau sets the girl within a beautiful rustic landscape, surrounded by aquatic plant life, bulrush, and irises. 

Bouguereau produced many of the paintings of this genre during his vacations in La Rochelle, later completing them in his Paris atelier.  The model in the present work is well documented as the subject of numerous compositions between 1894 and 1895, notably La cage vide and L’iris.  Bouguereau also painted a 41 by 33 cm head study of this young girl in the same pose.