Madonna of the Lilies inspired by the work of William-Adolphe Bouguereau Counted Cross Stitch Chart
William-Adolphe Bouguereau , 1825 - 1905, was a French painter. William Bouguereau was a traditionalist; in his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. From the 1860s, Bouguereau was closely associated with the Acadmie Julian where he gave lessons and advice to art students, male and female, from around the world. During several decades he taught drawing and painting to hundreds, if not thousands, of students. Many of them managed to establish artistic careers in their own countries, sometimes following his academic style, and in other cases, rebelling against it. In 1974, the New York Cultural Center staged a show of Bouguereau's work as a curiosity. In 1984, a major exhibition was organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in Canada. The exhibition opened at the Muse du Petit-Palais, in Paris, traveled to The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, and concluded in Montral. A 2005 exhibit of three works by Bouguereau at the J. Paul Getty Museum, "instantly became the single most popular work at the museum, ultimately building to tens of thousands of visitors clogging the halls waiting their turn to see the exhibit." Recently Bouguereau's popularity has seen a revival partially due to the work of the Art Renewal Center, which features him as the most popular artist on the site. Bouguereau's works are in many public collections.