56 WILLIAM ADOLPHE As a member of the French Academy and a proponent of highly finished and BOUGUEREAU sensuous classicism, Bouguereau was considered the heir to the grand tradition of French, 1825-1905 European master painting. He was one of the most honored painters of the period. Young Girl Defending Herself His idyllic mythologies, such as Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros, appealed Against Eros, circa 1880 tremendously to the crowds who visited the annual exhibitions at the Paris Salon. For Oil on canvas them such glimpses into a convincingly conjured Arcadia provided escape from the 79.5 x 55 cm (31¾ x 21 in.) Signed left center on block, complexities and regimented chaos of modern urban life. W.BOVGVEREAV Bouguereau exhibited a large version of Young Girl Defending Herself Against 70.PA.3 Eros (University of North Carolina at Wilmington) at the Salon of 1880. Heralded as one of the artist's best "mythologies," its success led Bouguereau to produce the Getty Museum's smaller autograph replica for the private market. The painting's sparkling immediacy results from Bouguereau's free reinvention of the classical past. Because the subject is without an ancient literary source, it invites the viewer to imaginatively supply the narrative. Will the girl's resistance triumph, or will Love's arrow find its mark? The painting captures the theatrical accoutrements of Bouguereau's studio, casting the dark, sylvan beauty of his favorite model as the smiling girl and equipping the primal god of love with the stage-prop wings of a dove. The setting and vegetation are recognizably French. Even the soft white light may recall the winter sky as it was reflected through the windows of the artist's studio where, in a note to his daughter, he wrote that he began the composition on December 1, 1879. At the turn of the twentieth century Bouguereau's work was as highly prized by Americans as it was by his compatriots. One of J. Paul Getty's early acquisitions, Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros remained in his collection in Surrey, England, from 1941 until its donation to the Museum in 1970. DA FRENCH SCHOOL 105