Charity

Artist William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825 - 1905)

Dateca. 1874

MediumBlack and white chalk on discolored gray-green paper

DimensionsUnframed: 11 x 8 5/16 inches (27.94 x 21.11 cm)
Framed: 25 1/4 x 22 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches (64.135 x 57.15 x 3.81 cm)

Credit LineGift of Virginia L. Coleman

Object number71-30/2

Signedl.r.: "Wm Bouguereau"

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 23-August 18, 1996; The Cummer Museum and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, September 20-November 29, 1996; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, December 21, 1996-March 2, 1997, no. 73, as Charity.

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 12-September 6, 1998, no cat., as Charity.

The Feminine Mystique: Portraits of and by Women, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 27-October 8, 2006, no cat., as Charity.

The Feminine Mystique: Portraits of and by Women, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 9-August 11, 2013, no cat., as Charity.

Gallery Label

In this drawing, a young woman, nurturing two children at her breast, looks out intently at the spectator. Bouguereau often represented allegorical themes, inspired by the Italian Renaissance masters, and the woman here personifies the virtue of Charity. This drawing is related to a painting of the same subject (now lost) shown at the 1874 Salon, and was probably drawn from the finished painting, rather than as a preparatory study for it. In the traditional academic manner, Bouguereau demonstrates his meticulous drawing style, animated by touches of luminous white chalk.

Provenance

Walter Ransom (1892-1973), Oklahoma City, OK;

Given by Virginia L. Coleman (1925-1991), Wichita, KS, to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1971.

Published References

Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 222-24, (repro.), as Charity.

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