Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905)
Amour Fraternel (Fraternal Love, Virgin and Child with Young Saint John)
1851
Oil on canvas, 147 x 113.7 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bouguereau enjoyed a lifetime of official favor and commercial success and carried the tradition of French academic painting to the turn of the twentieth century. As a young man, he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome, which enabled him to study in Italy for four years. Fraternal Love, painted in Rome, was modelled after the Renaissance artist Raphael‘s paintings of the Virgin and Child with Saint John, with their harmonious grouping of idealized, serene figures. (MFA)