He was one of the most powerful figures in official French art circles, but after his death his name fell into relative obscurity, his work considered too sentimental for the emerging modern age. Only in the past twenty years has interest been revived in Bouguereau as the supreme academician in the great age of the Paris Salon. Had Bouguereau followed his parents' wishes, he would have remained in the world of commerce. He arrived in Paris in 1846 and entered the Beaux-Arts as a student of Picot. Most of Bouguereau's Salon pictures are nudes, religious subjects and figures from classical history or mythology.
Historical authenticity is attempted with the Greek chiton and the protogeometric amphora.
The reduced color range and the idealized beauty of the young woman are noted characteristics of Bouguereau's later style. The sentimentality of the artist, so highly regarded by some and harshly criticized by others, is expressed here through the large, searching eyes of the maiden. She appears vulnerable, yet somehow receptive, to the amorous stirrings aroused by the whispers of the playful cupid.