Les amoureux

Dated 1850, Les amoureux, also previously called L'Idylle, is among William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s earliest identified paintings, with the earliest known work in the catalogue raisonné dating to 1844. Though Bouguereau was only 24 years old, 1850 would be a pivotal moment in the young artist’s trajectory which would ultimately see him achieve the greatest heights of fame and success during his lifetime. It was the year in which he finally achieved his dream of winning the Prix de Rome, the prestigious prize which would allow him to travel to Italy and study the great works of the Italian Renaissance firsthand. He had won second prize in 1848 and entered again in 1849 without achieving any award at all, but it was 1850 which would finally bring Bouguereau the official recognition he sought.
Les amoureux in particular also gives us a window into this key moment in the artist’s development, as it is Bouguereau’s first identified painting which is neither a portrait nor could be called a history painting – his first foray into the kind of classical subject matter which would bring him so much acclaim later in his career. While classical subject matter was among the most appropriate ‘official’ styles of painting (Bouguereau’s Prix de Rome was awarded for his Shepherds Find Zenobia on the Banks of the Araxes, a subject taken from Tacitus), classical subject matter without a historical narrative was a bolder choice. Though this is not yet the Bouguereau of the idealized peasant girls with which he would be so associated, this relatively simple composition of a male and female figure in classical dress sharing a flirtatious moment presages the images of nymphs, satyrs and bacchantes which would bring him so much early success.