WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU | Le petit câlin

Goupil & Cie, Paris, no. 13197 (acquired directly from the artist, December 1878) 
Knoedler & Co., New York 
Borghi & Co., New York (by February 1991)
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York

Charles Vendryès, Dictionnaire illustré des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1885, p. 58
Franqueville, Le premier siècle de l'Institut de France, Paris, 1895, p. 370
Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, Paris, 1900, p. 153
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. 71
Damien Bartoli and Frederick C. Ross, William Bouguereau, his life and works, New York, 2010, p. 445, illustrated pl. 293; and in the revised 2014 edition, p. 445, illustrated pl. 293
Damien Bartoli and Frederick C. Ross, William Bouguereau, Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Works, New York, 2010, p. 187, no. 1878/16, illustrated p. 186; and in the revised 2014 edition, p. 187, no. 1878/16, illustrated p. 186 

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work has been restored. It seems to be clean and well varnished. The canvas is lined. The paint layer is stable. No retouches are evident under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye. The work seems to be in remarkable condition, and it should be hung in its current state.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Le petit câlin is one of a series of major canvases that William Bouguereau painted in 1878 featuring a young woman holding and caring for an infant child. Experimenting with poses and expressions, in each of these he captures a fleeting moment of intimacy between the two figures, allowing Bouguereau to demonstrate his technical virtuosity through the complex interlacing of arms and hands, balance of weight and offering of support. Painted as nearly life-size vertical portraits and set in front of a loosely painted landscape, Bouguereau lends his models an iconic stature. In his biography on the artist, Marius Vachon discusses the artist's mother and child paintings, which are greatly instructed by the fifteenth century Italian paintings of the Madonna and Child. He writes: "From the outset, the paintings of the Italian masters revealed to the artist the beauty inherent in youth, the seduction in a smile, the grace in simplicity. Above all he paints young mothers, with their children. This theme, which had been interpreted in an inexhaustible variety of ways, and always with new eloquence, inspired him to paint works of an infinite charm, the figure types were generally borrowed from the Italians" (as translated from the French Marius Vachon, W. Bouguereau, 1900, p. 92). Le petit câlin clearly shows the influence of Raphäel, whom Bouguereau revered.  With his paintings owing as much to the sacred as to the profane, Bouguereau's choice of the simple and innocent lives of Roman peasants as his subjects eloquently served his artistic aims.  The present composition's saturated, jewel-like colors recall the Renaissance masters: the rich blue of the mother's skirt complimented by her crimson kerchief, and the deep greens of shadowy foliage acting as a background. The baby grips her chemise while her splayed fingers press against the soft skin of her own arm, creating a naturalistic truth in their representation. The viewer can appreciate the tender emotion shared between the two, as the young woman glances adoringly at “the little charmer,” whose face is seen gently smiling in profile. Bouguereau's interest in visualizing their connection is readily compared with his Jeune fille et enfant (1878, location unknown) in which the figure is seen from behind, standing with the baby draped across her arms. The artist completed five variations on this theme between 1878-79, including Le petit câlin, leading the chronicler Adrien Dézamy to note in his May 1879 review, Contemporary Art, "No one on earth writes of women and children better than Victor Hugo, and one could say of Mr. Bouguereau that no one of our time paints women and children better than he!"

1878 was a momentous year for Bouguereau. To celebrate its recovery after the Franco-Prussian war, France hosted the Exposition Universelle, the biggest ever world’s fair to date. Electric lighting was installed on certain avenues, audiences were introduced to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and the completed head of the Statue of Liberty was showcased. Bouguereau assembled a critical retrospective of his own work from the previous decade, including masterpieces such as La Nymphée (1878, Haggin Museum, Stockton, California) and Une âme en ciel (1878, Périgord Museum of Art and Archeology, Périgueux, France), among nearly a dozen others for which he was awarded a medal of honor. In total, over 13,000,000 people attended the fair, which certainly helped to propel Bouguereau’s international fame to new heights, and contributed to his enormous success in America, as many of his best paintings were acquired by wealthy Americans (see lot 24, La bourrique; lot 25, L’agneau nouveau né and lot 27, Portrait de jeune fille). The artist’s legendary first dealer, Durand-Ruel, had been cultivating that interest and guiding his output. Robert Isaacson writes that "Durand-Ruel introduced Bouguereau to one of his painters, Hugues Merle (see lot 35), who was having an enormous success with compositions of the mother and baby, brother and sister sort... Bouguereau was urged to try his hand at this genre, and his success with it is part of history" (Robert Isaacson, "Collecting Bouguereau in England an America," William Bouguereau: 1825 – 1905, exh. cat., Paris, 1984, p. 104). As he grew into his artistic and commercial maturity, and because of the strength of his output, Bouguereau was persuaded to accept an exclusive and much more lucrative contract with Goupil, and it is no surprise that after they acquired Le petit câlin its next appearance was in New York at Knoedler, responsible for promoting the artist and his work with collectors from New England to the Midwest.