A BERLIN (K.P.M.) PORCELAIN RECTANGULAR PLAQUE, THE BIRTH OF VENUS

William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) was a highly influential and popular academic painter in the final quarter of the 19th century, known today mostly for his portraits of young peasant girls. A long time instructor at the Académie Julian in Paris, Bouguereau brought a classical and romantic approach to portrait, religious, mythological and genre scenes in a time and place where impressionism was paving the way for pointillism and expressionism. La Naissance de Vénus was completed in 1879 and hangs today at the Musée d'Orsay (Identifiant 16649).