Head of a Young Girl 1890

William Bouguereau painted this oil-on-canvas portrait, Head of a Young Girl, with great skill and attention to detail. Bouguereau was known for his academic style, which often involved a high degree of finish, and his meticulous technique required countless hours of work. In paintings such as this, he used methods of layering, glazing and blending to create a smooth, almost photographic realism. Though the artist was celebrated in his lifetime, his reputation declined rapidly with the advent of modernism; some critics found his devotion to realism to be facile. Yet there's a deep engagement with the world in a painting like this. Bouguereau, after all, was part of a vast system of art production, sales, and consumption, and he was deeply committed to the painstaking labour required. Thinking about the immense investment of time and labour that goes into such a picture gives it an unexpected charge.