Le printemps

Painted not long after Bouguereau’s return from Italy, the present work was one of several important commissions the young artist received early in his career which helped establish his reputation in France upon his return. Le Printemps was part of the decorative scheme of the Salon des Saisons of the Hôtel Pereire, the home of the Parisian banker, Parliamentarian and railroad industrialist Émile Pereire, who commissioned Bouguereau to decorate two rooms of his house in 1857. In addition to the Salon des Saisons, the other Salon took as its subject themes of Night and Day. The opulent home, located at 35-37 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, now houses the British Embassy in Paris.
Bouguereau’s completion of the commission was highly anticipated, with the critic Théophile Gautier writing that the paintings ‘will render the two rooms the most sumptuous in the world.’ (L. Baschet, p. 15). The decorative program for Salon des Saisons included a large central ceiling painting, four oval medallions depicting allegories of each of the four seasons as particular goddesses to go in the corners, and the present work, depicting classicized figures participating in activities associated with springtime, as well as three others corresponding to the remaining seasons, to be installed over doors and mirrors throughout the room. The artist’s use of the gold background, found in his oeuvre only in the years immediately following his return from Italy, is particularly notable and reflects the influence not only of classical painting on the young artist but also the opulence which characterized interior decoration at the height of the Second Empire. Bouguereau’s decorative scheme was well-received, praised for bringing new life to classical subject matter.