Venus with Doves

ARTIST

William Bouguereau
French, 1825-1905

MEDIUM

Oil on canvas

DATE

circa 1879

DIMENSIONS

Overall: 32 1/8 x 18 3/8 in. (81.6 x 46.7 cm)

CREDIT

Ackland Fund

BACKGROUND

Bouguereau was one of the leading figures of the French academic tradition in the second half of the nineteenth century, and a bitter opponent of the innovations in painting begun by the Impressionists. He achieved great popularity with his sensuous nudes, thinly veiled with mythological references. By calling it 'Venus' the artist links his painting with ancient Greek and Roman culture, rather than with a live, naked woman. Such an allusion may have made the painting's sexual content more acceptable to a nineteenth-century middle-class audience.