Excellent commentary Num++.

Bouguereau’s color palette is reminiscent of Rembrandt’s about 250 years before. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/1650/bathsheba.jpg

If you compare the two paintings you might notice three things: Both have a monocromatic golden tone; Rembrandt is more naturalistic in painting of the woman than Bouguereau; and you might notice that the Rembrandt is more powerful: the light is more intense; the forms “pop” more; and a richer contrast with lights and darks.

Bouguereau was at his peak in the mid 19^th Century just when the French Impressionists were still students and taking their first steps towards a radical change in color theory…they wanted to break from “studio” art and go back to real life—to observe light and color fresh from nature. Van Gogh’s self portrait http://www.digischool.nl/kleioscoop/gogh%20van.jpg

lacks the realism of Rembrandt or Bouguereau but he is expanding the color palette to include intense red, green ochre, pinks, brilliant orange, and blue.

My personal quest in art was/is to combine realism with impressionist i.e. natural color theory. This reproduction, Puccini, http://www.michaelnewberry.com/works/Puccini.jpg

 is a little dark and unclear but you can see it is more realistic than the Van Gogh and yet has quite a range of pure color that the Bouguereau and the Rembrandt do not have.

There is a very good reason why Bouguereau is monochromatic and why the French Impressionist have a cruder representations…combining realism with a full spectrum of natural and contrasting colors is extremely difficult to do.

Michael

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