The Elder Sister
The Elder Sister (French: La soeur aînée) is a painting by nineteenth-century French academic artist, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, in 1869. The painting was acquired in 1992 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as a gift. According to the museum website, the painting was the gift of an anonymous lady in memory of her father. Since then, The Elder Sister has been a part of the permanent collection of the museum and is placed in its "Arts of Europe" section. It has become one of the most notable highlights among the museum's collection of paintings.
The painting shows a girl ("the elder sister") sitting on a rock and holding a sleeping baby on her lap. A quiet rural landscape serves as the background. For this scene, Bouguereau's daughter, Henriette, and son, Paul, served as models. Bouguereau used great care and attention in drawing the children's features and the positioning of their bodies, giving them an idyllic look. The girl's eyes look directly at the viewer and both children are shown with immaculate clothing.
The dimensions of the painting are 51¼ × 38¼ in (130.2 × 97.2 cm)[1] and the frame is 67½ × 55 × 5½ in (171.5 × 139.7 × 14 cm).
Another painting by Bouguereau also is entitled, The Elder Sister (completed in 1864). It currently belongs to the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
Source and Courtesy : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Sister
Bather (1864), a shocking nude, was submitted to an exhibition in Ghent, Belgium. It was a spectacular success and purchased by the museum at great expense. At this time, William took on decorative work at the Grand Théâtre, Bordeaux, which lasted four years. In 1875, with assistants, he began work on a La Rochelle chapel ceiling, producing six paintings on copper over the next six years. Once installed in the city in summer 1875 he began Pietà, one of his greatest religious paintings and shown at the 1876 Salon, in tribute to his son Georges. At the behest of King William III of the Netherlands, Bouguereau went to Het Loo Palace in May 1876. The king admired the artist and they spent intimate times together. In May 1878 the Paris Universal Exhibition opened to showcase French work. Bouguereau found and borrowed twelve of his paintings from their owners, including his new work Nymphaeum.
