William-Adolphe Bouguereau, at fifty-one the most famous…

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, at fifty-one the most famous working French painter, is made a member of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Bouguereau is a staunch traditionalist whose genre paintings and mythological themes are modern interpretations of Classical subjects, both pagan and Christian, with a concentration on the naked female form.

The idealized world of his paintings brings to life goddesses, nymphs, bathers, shepherdesses, and madonnas in a way that appeals to wealthy art patrons of the era.

As a proponent of official orthodoxy in painting, he continues to play a major role in the exclusion of the works of the Impressionists and other experimental painters from the Salon.