Mignon Pensive, from "Illustrated London News"

Goupil & Co.|William Bouguereau

August 17, 1872 · Wood engraving · Drawings and Prints

In 1866, Bouguereau signed an exclusive contract with Goupil & Cie for both the sale of all his paintings and their reproduction rights. This print and its title derives from Goupil’s photograph of an 1869 painting, Mignon, which depicts the title character from an opera of the same name, based on Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister. The painting sold to a private collector in The Hague within a month of arriving at the Goupil Gallery in Paris, but its image circulated far beyond through the photograph and its reproduction, such as this wood engraving that appeared on the cover of the Illustrated London News. Bouguereau earned his reputation as one of the most successful nineteenth-century French academic painters in large part thanks to the circulation of his work in this manner, especially in the U.S. and U.K.

Artist

Goupil & Co.|William Bouguereau

Date

August 17, 1872

Medium

Wood engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Donato Esposito, 2016