After
returning from a four year stint in Rome, prestige and influence allowed
him to wage war against the modernist tendencies of French art. His
portraits and religious works evince a photographic quality, highly
prized by the academic painters of his period, in which brushstrokes
are strictly concealed and a sense of three-dimensionality is achieved
- though possibly at the expense of expression and personality.
As a powerful member of the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture,
Bouguereau prevented avant-garde works from being shown at the Academy's
official exhibition. Artists rejected by the Salon because of Bouguereau's
efforts include the post-Impressionist Paul
Cezanne, who referred to "the Salon
de Monsieur de Bouguereau."
As the avante-garde movement began to accelerate in the 20th century,
Bouguereau's reputation quickly declined. While his hostility toward
new ideas have made him a natural enemy for some progressive artists
and historians, in the present post-modernist era, interest in his
work has once again begun to accelerate.
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