SAMA Collections: European Art

William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905)
Admiration, 1875
Oil on canvas
58 x 78 inches
Bquest of Mort. D. Goldberg
59.46.10G

The European painting and sculpture collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art includes Italian, French Dutch and British works from the 17th through the 20th centuries. William Adolphe Bouguereau's Admiration, a prime example of late 19th century academic painting, is part of our collection. Admiration was awarded the highest honors in the Salon of 1899, when Bouguereau was at the height of his fame. Some later critics denigrated the glossy finish and sentimentality of the work, but it remains a perfect example of late-nineteenth-century academic painting in the grand tradition of Raphael, Ingres, and the French Salon.