Biblis

Biblis: William-Adolphe Bouguereau

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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William-Adolphe Bouguereau Oil Painting - Biblis

Keywords: Biblis

Work Overview: Biblis
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Date: c.1884
Style: Neoclassicism
Genre: nude painting (nu)
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 48 x 79 cm
Location: Private Collection
LOT SOLD. 1,025,000 USD

In Greek mythology, Byblis or Bublis (Ancient Greek: Βυβλίς) was a daughter of Miletus. Her mother was either Tragasia, Cyanee, daughter of the river-god Meander, or Eidothea, daughter of King Eurytus of Caria. She fell in love with Caunus, her twin brother.

This impressive painting of Biblis by French artist W.A. Bouguereau records a decisive moment in her life. As the story goes, Biblis, the daughter of Miletus of Crete fell in love with her twin brother Caunus. The painting depicts a moment where Biblis breaks down in grief after Caunus flees from his sister’s affections. Bouguerau employed traditional methods of painting, first doing detailed pencil studies and oil sketches before starting the actual work on canvas. He used mythological themes, painting modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body.

Classical subjects and Greek myths provided Bouguereau with inspiration throughout his career. The resulting narrative paintings were accessible to contemporary audiences and earned him great acclaim as his submissions to the Paris Salon, including compositions such as Nymphs et Satyr (1873, Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown Massachusetts), Flore et Zéphyre (1874, Musée de Mulhouse, France), and La Jeunesse de Bacchus (1884, present whereabouts unknown), painted the same year as the present work, which is the réduction of his Salon submission of 1885, Biblis (1884, Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad, India). The classical subject also provided a veil under which Bouguereau could present the nude, a strategy that many Academic artists employed as well.
In Greek mythology, Biblis, daughter of Miletus, fell in love with her twin brother, Caunus. Though she realized that her feelings were taboo, she could not help but try to woo him and sent him a letter citing examples of incest among the Gods. Repelled and afraid, Caunus fled, driving Biblis mad and prompting her to shed her clothes and chase him through Greece and Anatolia, crying incessantly. Exhausted by grief and sorrow, she collapses, perishes and is transformed by nymphs into a spring, or according to other acccounts, is simply consumed by her tears and becomes a fountain. In either outcome, Bouguereau represents Biblis in her penultimate moment.
Bouguereau writes: “Among my paintings, “Biblis” is one that I love the most, one that I most enjoyed painting; this even though it was inspired by an incident in the atelier. One of my female models had just asked to rest from a tiring pose; when the young woman was in the process of standing up, she instinctively found herself in a pose so beautiful that I stopped her with a gesture and a shout, begging her to hold the pose for just an instant longer. I sketched her immediately, very quickly… I had seen my “Biblis.” It is one of my best paintings” (as translated from the French, Vachon, p. 115).
Bouguereau was regularly asked to paint réductions of his most important works, frequently requested by Jules Adolphe Goupil, his exclusive dealer from 1866 onwards, either to provide print-makers with a more manageable-sized canvas to copy (there was a ready market, especially in America, for Bouguereau's prints), or to satisfy the demands of avid collectors wishing to acquire the no-longer-available original.

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William-Adolphe Bouguereau

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