William Adolphe Bouguereau painted the human figure with a finish so smooth that the shapes read clearly even at a distance, which is part of why his work suits counted cross stitch so well.
He was a French academic painter, born in 1825 and died in 1905, and he trained under François-Édouard Picot. Mythological painting was his great subject, reworked for a modern audience and built around the female figure, alongside portraits and religious scenes. In his own lifetime he was celebrated in France and America and paid handsomely for it, while the Impressionists treated him as everything they were pushing against. Taste turned after his death and he was largely forgotten until the 1980s, when renewed interest in figure painting brought him back. Of his 822 known paintings, many have simply vanished from view.
Bouguereau taught Pierre-Auguste Cot, Charles Amable Lenoir, Guillaume Seignac and Gustave Doyen, all of whom worked in much the same vein.
If it is the painting itself you love rather than the stitching, William Adolphe Bouguereau art prints are easy to find.
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