William Bouguereau : His Life and Works Art Book Review

Posted By yonghow on August 7th, 2014

William Bouguereau : His Life and Works is a thick tome of an art book documenting the French academic painter’s biography and lifetime of work, with over 500 pages of art work covering some 750 paintings in total.

Bouguereau often employed mythological themes for his subject matter, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body.

William Bouguereau: His Life and Works Art Book

During my Paris trip in 2011 I had the good fortune of seeing some of Bouguereau’s originals at Musee D’Orsay ( including Dante And Virgil in Hell, image above ) and needless to say I was completely mesmerized by the sublime beauty of his paintings.

William Bouguereau: His Life and Works Art Book

(above) The Birth Of Venus, also a permanent collection of Musee D’Orsay in Paris. This is yet another modern ( speaking in relative terms ) interpretation of a classical piece. Painted in 1879, it comes 400 years after Sandro Botticelli’s famous painting of the same name, painted in 1486 and now housed at the Uffizi in Florence.

William Bouguereau: His Life and Works Art Book

The preview pages show above are but a very small sampling of the 750 paintings featured in the 500 paged book. At the time of writing this review I do not believe there are any other art books on Bouguereau that comes close to the scope and sheer quantity of art work covered in this huge volume. My highest recommendations.

Technical note : There are numerous customer reviews on Amazon ( dated 2011 ) lamenting the weak binding used for the book, but this doesn’t not seem to afflict the 2014 edition. My own observation is that the spine can be thicker for a book of such substantial size to make the build sturdier, but I don’t consider it a “fatal” flaw; certainly not serious enough to pass up such a great collection of Bouguereau’s work. On another note, Amazon’s item page lists the book’s page count at 400 pages, which is incorrect.

“William Bouguereau : His Life and Works” art book details :

Dimensions – 12 x 9.7 x 1.9 inches
Hardcover, 530 pages
Color, in English