Willliam Bouguereau, Private Version

William Bouguereau, one of the most gifted painters of his generation, suddenly plummeted from the heights of fame to the depths of obscurity after his death in 1905. He was considered unworthy of attention until the late 1970s, when "art pompier" returned to favour. His work was finally rehabilitated and even consecrated, notably with the spring 1984 retrospective at the Petit Palais in Paris (before Montreal and Hartford). Visitors could see that this famous smooth, almost photographic technique, called "academic", was nonetheless endowed with great sensitivity, even a strange sensuality. The unique group reappearing in Lyon today—16…