La Première Discorde
La Première Discorde (The First Discord) c1861 by French Painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 – 1905); of the NeoClassic and Academic Periods, who created modern interpretations of classical subjects based of mythological themes.
La Première Discorde is a beautiful and stunning portrait of Eve from the Biblical Tale with her two sons Cain and Able as children of about 3 and 4 years of age.
They are situated in a clearing near what may be a beach, as there is sand on the ground with a few pebbles; with Eve sitting on a large rocky overhang.
She has a large white and tan robe placed over her thighs and up to the lower portion of her waist, with Able sitting towards his mother on her right thigh with his head between both of his arms that are position on her right shoulder as if he is crying, as she supports his upper back with her right hand.
Cain on the other hand is standing by his mothers left thigh with his right arm placed across is chest and under his left upper arm, with his forearm and hand folded behind his neck as his mother places her left hand around his tummy.
Cain is looking over his right shoulder into the distance with an annoyed look on his face as his mother looks down at him with a look of concerned sorrow.
Completing the scene in the background is a large clump of green plants, the obscure most of the blue sky and mountain range that can be seen at the left and right corners of the painting; and on the sandy ground are other green plants with some red ones, as well as grass on the rocky outcrop and red flowers.
La Première Discorde is a remastered digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available as a canvas print online.
Info Below Derived From Wikipedia.org
William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France, on 30 November 1825, into a family of wine and olive oil merchants. The son of Catholic parents Théodore Bouguereau b1800 and Marie Bonnin b1804, known as Adeline.
He had an elder brother, Alfred, and a younger sister, Marie (known as Hanna), who died at the age of seven. The family moved to Saint-Martin-de-Ré in 1832. Another sibling was born in 1834, Kitty.
At the age of 12, Bouguereau went to Mortagne to stay with his uncle Eugène, a priest and developed a love of nature, religion and literature. In 1839, he was sent to study for the priesthood at a Catholic college in Pons.
At the Catholic College he was taught to draw and paint by Louis Sage, who had studied under Ingres. Bouguereau reluctantly left his studies to return to his family, now residing in Bordeaux. While in Bordeaux in November 1841 he met a local artist, Charles Marionneau, and continued his artistic studies at the Municipal School of Drawing and Painting.
Bouguereau also worked as a shop assistant, hand-colouring lithographs and making small paintings that were reproduced using chromolithography. He was soon the best pupil in his class, and decided to become an artist in Paris. To fund the move, he sold 33 unsigned oil portrait portraits in three months; and with the money earned, arrived in Paris at the age of 20 in March 1846.
After arriving in Paris Bouguereau became a student at the École des Beaux-Arts; and to supplement his formal training in drawing, he attended anatomical dissections and studied historical costumes and archeology. In 1848 he created Égalité Devant La Mort (Equality Before Death), his first Bmajor painting.
Later he gained a position in the studio of François-Édouard Picot, where he studied painting in the academic style; producing Dante and Virgil in Hell c1850, which is an early example of his neo-classical artwork.
During his life Bouguereau enjoyed a significant amount of popularity in France and the United States, and was given numerous official honors, while enoying being paid top price for his artwork. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde.
Throughout the course of his life, Bouguereau executed 822 known finished paintings, although the whereabouts of many are still unknown.
