Guillaume Seignac

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is unlined. There is a fairly significant patch on the reverse in the upper center which has been applied to correct a damage in the hair and in the fingers of the sitter. This damage, which presumably is a tear, also extends through the cheek and into the neck however, it appears to be the only structural damage. The paint layer is most likely slightly dirty and the retouches in the face are not very good. The restorations are visible under ultraviolet light and although there is some ambiguity as to their locations, it is more than likely that there are some further restorations in the sky in the upper left, perhaps in some of the masonry on the left side, and in the arm addressing some cracking. To present this picture properly, the paint layer should to be cleaned and the structural damage should be reexamined. The canvas should perhaps be lined to properly deal with the damage yet nonetheless, the condition generally is reasonably good.
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Academic paintings of classically draped maidens in timeless landscapes enjoyed a considerable vogue in the late nineteenth century. In England, Frederic Lord Leighton, John William Godward and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema explored this theme, and in France, William Bouguereau and his pupil Guillaume Seignac. Bouguereau considered Seignac like a son, and may have guided his student in the execution of the present work, probably completed in 1895-1900, soon after Seignac left the Académie Julian. Happy Thoughts' balanced composition, classic lines and well-modeled forms, inspired by Antique and Renaissance examples, follows Bouguereau's technique, while the palette of soft purples and greens is more closely identified with Seignac. Seignac completed this masterful work at the peak of Europe's fascination with the catastrophes and excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Particularly in France, recently translated Roman historical novels fueled the public imagination: The Last Days of Pompeii (Edward George Bulwer Lytton, 1834), Ben Hur (Lew Wallace, 1880) and Quo Vadis (Henryk Sienkiewicz, 1896). The ancient Romans were now seen as living, breathing people rather than dusty historical subjects, and portraits often embellished real history with mythology, appeasing the demand for exotic, escapist scenes of the classical world. Indeed, the dreamy expression and languid pose of this Ancient woman represents the artistic ideal of un genie immorti --grace and beauty transformed by nature. The composition recalls  classical sculpture and vase painting, while the careful use of color and vivid line signifies a late nineteenth century aesthetic, creating a serene embodiment of female beauty that spans the ages.