Breton Brother And Sister
Breton Brother and Sister is a mid 19th-century painting by French artist William Bouguereau. Done in oil on canvas, the painting depicts a Breton brother and sister in traditional costume. The work - though created in 1871 - was created on the basis of sketches Bouguereau made in the late 1860s while vacationing in Brittany. The work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Source and Courtesy : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breton_Brother_and_Sister
The artist planned to marry Elizabeth Jane Gardner, a pupil whom he had known for ten years, but his mother was opposed to the idea. Soon after Nelly's death, she made Bouguereau swear he would not remarry within her lifetime. After his mother's death, and after a nineteen-year engagement, he and Gardner married in Paris in June 1896. His wife continued to work as his private secretary, and helped to organize the household staff. His son Paul contracted tuberculosis in early 1899; Paul, his stepmother, and Bouguereau went to Menton in the south. When the stay was prolonged, the artist found a room in which to paint. Paul died at his father's house in April 1900, aged 32; Bouguereau had outlived four of his five children, only Henriette outlived him. Elizabeth, who was with her husband to the end, died in Paris in January 1922.
