(November 30, 1825 - August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter. William Bouguereau was a traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects with a heavy emphasis on the female human body. William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France on November 30, 1825, into a family of wine and olive oil merchants. He seemed destined to join the family business but for the intervention of his uncle Eugene, a Roman Catholic priest, who taught him classical and Biblical subjects, and arranged for Bouguereau to go to high school. Bouguereau showed artistic talent early on and his father was convinced by a client to send him to the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, where he won first prize in figure painting for a depiction of Saint Roch. To earn extra money, he designed labels for jams and preserves  Related Paintings of William-Adolphe Bouguereau :. | L'Art et la Litterature | Depiction of a soul being carried to heaven by two angels | Bather | The Bohemian | L Etoile Perdue |
Related Artists:
John Martin
British 1789-1854 John Martin Gallery His first exhibited subject picture, Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion (now in the St. Louis Art Museum), was hung in the Ante-room of the Royal Academy in 1812, and sold for fifty guineas. It was followed by the Expulsion (1813), Paradise (1813), Clytie (1814), and Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon (1816). In 1821 appeared his Belshazzar's Feast, which excited much favorable and hostile comment, and was awarded a prize of £200 at the British Institution, where the Joshua had previously carried off a premium of £100. Then came the Destruction of Herculaneum (1822), the Creation (1824), the Eve of the Deluge (1841), and a series of other Biblical and imaginative subjects. The Plains of Heaven is thought to reflect his memories of the Allendale of his youth. Martin's large paintings were inspired by "contemporary dioramas or panoramas, popular entertainments in which large painted cloths were displayed, and animated by the skilful use of artificial light. Martin has often been claimed as a forerunner of the epic cinema, and there is no doubt that the pioneer director D. W. Griffith was aware of his work." In turn, the diorama makers borrowed Martin's work, to the point of plagiarism. A 2000-square-foot version of Belshazzar's Feast was mounted at a facility called the British Diorama in 1833; Martin tried, but failed, to shut down the display with a court order. Another diorama of the same picture was staged in New York City in 1835. These dioramas were tremendous successes with their audiences, but wounded Martin's reputation in the serious art world.
palais royal

Albert Gallatin Hoit
Albert Gallatin Hoit (December 13, 1809 - December 18, 1856) was an American painter who lived in Boston, Massachusetts. He painted portraits of William Henry Harrison, Daniel Webster and Brenton Halliburton. Hoit was born in Sandwich, New Hampshire, December 13, 1809, to Gen. Daniel Hoit and Sally Flanders. Siblings included William Henry Hoit. Hoit graduated from Dartmouth College in 1829. He married Susan Hanson in 1838; children included Anna M. Hoit. Hoit "devoted his life to portrait painting, first at Portland, Maine, in 1831, and then in Bangor and Belfast, Maine, and St. John's, N.B. until Boston, Mass., became his permanent home in 1839." He also travelled in Europe, "Oct. 1842 to July 1844, ... enjoying the galleries of art in Italy, Paris, and London." He created portraits of Pietro Bachi, Johanna Robinson Hazen, J. Eames, and others. He painted a portrait of Daniel Webster "for Paran Stevens, which hung for years in the Revere House, Boston, and now belongs to the Union League Club, New York." He was affiliated with the Boston Artists' Association; and exhibited at the gallery of the New England Art Union in the 1850s. In 1848, he kept a studio on Tremont Row in Boston, and lived in Roxbury. By 1852, he'd moved his studio to Washington Street. Hoit died in Jamaica Plain, December 18, 1856, at age 47.