During the 19th century, the Academic Art movement was extremely popular, incorporating themes of classic figures and themes, symbolism but above all, a realistic execution. The French Academy, of course, took this to extreme lengths in that they pretty much decided that this style was the only worthwhile form of artistic expression and tried to suppress all other — which later led, perhaps justifiably, to their excoriation by the Impressionists and a subsequent loss of popularity.
Which I think is a shame, because along the way we lost the works of some incredibly-talented artists, such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau (pronounced “booger-oh”, for non-Francophiles).
I have a great fondness for Bouguereau’s work, as it happens, because while some of his paintings are kinda ordinary, there are several instances of startling and unsettling undertones. Let’s start with the regular stuff:
All very innocent, really. But one of the underlying reasons for this classicism was that it was a way of getting around the censors: as long as the theme was classical, you see, an artist could depict pretty much anything of a more, shall we say, revealing nature.
Not to say implicitly sexual:
And just so we’re clear on the topic, here’s Bouguereau’s depiction of Dante and Virgil in the Inferno:
Now that’s realism. Those effete Impressionists pale by comparison.
