William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Pieta, Mary Mourning Christ
A year before completing the painting Bouguereau had suffered the traumatic loss of his teenage son George to a sudden illness. Contemporary correspondence reveals the artist's overwhelming grief at the death, that also seemed to have moved him to create a number of monumental religious works, this one being the most affecting. The golden urn in the foreground bears a faint Latin inscription dedicated to George, including his date of death. In stylistic terms, the art historian Gerald Ackerman has compared Bouguereau's religious works to "the masters of the high Renaissance[.] [Bouguereau] builds compositions out of the movement of strong, well rounded bodies, whose authoritative presence fills the canvases with energy." It is no coincidence that the position of Christ's head and shoulders echo that of Michelangelo's Vatican Pieta (1498-99) sculpture. Bouguereau also paid close attention to detail through his use of color: the rusty, drying blood on the white cloth in the foreground, the reddened eyes of the tearful Virgin, and the green tones of Christ's extremities in decay, all enhance the visual precision.
In 1870s France, religious painting was no longer the dominant genre it had been half a century previously, and the sharp, precise style of Neoclassicism was also under threat, from the advance of Impressionism; it is worth noting that this painting was composed four years after Monet's Impression, Sunrise (1872). However, Bouguereau was no captive of avant-garde fashion, and his personal identification with the Pietà theme allowed him to create a work transcending the cloying sentimentality for which he is sometimes criticized.
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Rolled canvas options have an additional white border of approximately 2.5 inches (7cm) on all 4 sides to aid stretching.
Ready to hang canvas panels are stretched on 1.5 inch deep solid pine frames from sustainable forestry sources. The image is mirrored on all 4 sides to give an aesthetically pleasing finish.
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What makes our prints and canvas panels so special
1Latest Giclee printing technology
We have invested in the latest wide format print technology to produce museum quality giclee prints utilising the highest quality pigment inks to give outstanding colour reproduction.
2Museum quality archival fine art papers
We print on the finest quality fine art papers with textured, smooth and lustre finishes for prints which last a lifetime. From aceo to 40x80 inch large format, every print has our lifetime quality guarantee.
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All of the wood for our canvas panels and frames is responsibly sourced from managed forests. Our cotton canvas is completely seedless for the highest quality reproduction possible.
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Have your choice of prints mounted and framed from our wide range of colours and styles.
Have your gift wrapped
Why not have us gift wrap your order and attach a personalised message to the recipient. Available for all orders. Each order is hand wrapped in high quality gift wrap with meatllic ribbon and bow. Your personalised message is printed on a card which is included with your order.
WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY
This was a present for my wife and she loves it. The quality is very good. Thanks for your excellent service.
Fantastic packaging and a stunning print. Thank you!
Great quality and a good idea to include a 'free gift' mini-pic to show what the other finishes are like.
Really excellent print quality! I have just had my print framed and it looks great thank you
This arrived quickly and is great quality, thank you! :)
My art print arrived quickly and in excellent condition! Very high quality print! Thank you!!
love my print! Very fast professional service Thank you very much
I ordered the canvas panel as a gift for my sister and she was delighted the canvas is really good quality and perfectly stretched. The finish on the back was really profesionally done too
Amazing print well printed and a reasonable price
