William Bouguereau

Goupil & Cie, Paris (no. 5789, acquired directly from the artist on September 30, 1871 as Le coquillage)
Henry Wallis, London (acquired from the above on October 13, 1871)
Private Collection, London (circa 1874)
Private Collection, New York (circa 1920)
Thence by descent

Charles Vendryes, Dictionnaire illustré des Beaux-Arts: Bouguereau, Paris, 1885, p. 46 (as Le bruit de la mer)
Franqueville, William Bouguereau, Paris, 1985, p. 370 (as Le bruit de la mer)
Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 150
Mark Steven Walker, "William-Adolphe Bouguereau, A Summary Catalogue of the Paintings," William-Adolphe Bouguereau, L'Art Pompier, exh. cat., Borghi & Co., New York, 1991, p. 68
Damien Bartoli with Fred Ross, William Bouguereau Catalogue Raisonné, (forthcoming), vol II, p. 136, no. 1871.11, illustrated p. 137

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has been recently restored and should be hung as is. The canvas has been lined using Beva-371 as an adhesive. The paint layer is clean, varnished and retouched. The retouches are clearly visible under ultraviolet light devoted almost entirely to reducing some cracks around the face and neck. In the face there are a few cracks in the mouth and above both eyes which have been retouched. In the figure there are no retouches on the sleeves and hands and hardly any in the dress, except for around the shoulders in the grey dress. The remainder of the picture is un-retouched, except immediately to the left of the head in the center where there is a group of retouches. The paint layer has cracked, which is very typical of Bouguereau's work. These cracks are visible but have not been retouched and the picture is comfortable the way it is. The strength and charm of the figure is impressive enough to allow this cracking to exist without restoration.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

While Bouguereau is most well-known for his sensitive portrayals of peasant girls at work in fields or at rest on rocky benches, rarer, equally impressive compositions depict  well-dressed children in finely appointed interiors.  Works like Le Bruit de Mer hold clues in costume design and decorative objects that link the painting with Bouguereau's contemporary world--yet demonstrate the same artistic brilliance and thematic strength of the artists' rural subjects.  In the present work, and its compositional pendant La Coquillage (Fig. 1), a young, blond model, hair held back by a burgundy band, wears a well-tailored dress, holding seashells. While in La Coquillage the model is accompanied by her mother, the young girl of Le Bruit de Mer stands alone, following the artist's traditional motif of children who are complete unto themselves, with a life independent of the adult world. Indeed, Bouguereau simplifies the dark background to a heavy hanging curtain and brocade-covered table. Bouguereau directs the viewer's eye to the girl's pink complexion and small hands through the use of contrasting tones and shapes (crisp white sleeves, the curving collar of her gray-blue petticoat). The present work, as with all of Bouguereau's best paintings, renders the model with naturalistic flare: her eyes unfocused, mouth slightly open to suggest her focused attention on the crashing sound of the sea made by the glossy shell held to her ear.  And like the heavy jugs or sheaves of wheat so symbolic to Bouguereau's peasant children, in Le Bruit de Mer the precious shells are important clues to this girl's life. The rage for shell collecting began in the in the eighteenth century and continued well into the nineteenth century as further exploration and colonialism through the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and Africa brought troves of natural treasures back to Europe.  By the 1850s, collecting societies were formed across the Netherlands, England and France, with extraordinarily high prices paid for particularly perfect examples. Both an exotic and expensive object, the shells provide another opportunity to express Bouguereau's virtuosity in detailing the color variations of a leopard-spotted shell, its high sheen reflecting a sunny window in its surface, and the subtle peach and pink interior of the heart-shaped specimen held out to the viewer.