Monday, November 21, 2011

What was he thinking?




































This artist, that is, Adolphe William Bouguereau, when he created this piece? The title is: 'Before the bath.'

I mention in a previous post that one day, while Renoir was being fitted for new eyeglasses, he threw them to the floor, crying, 'Good God, I see like Bouguereau!'  I would that I had his vision.

The best one can ever do, in my humble opinion, is to hazard a guess.  Speculate on what it is you believe the artist, speaker. friend or whomever was thinking, or perceiving, at the time. You may be close, maybe even spot on if you can see through their eyes.

Bouguereau's work often featured solitary images of females.  He paid great attention to their form and, in particular, their legs and feet.  A man after my own heart, indeed.

I've had the distinct displeasure of working with a couple of people who had the habit of saying: "I know what you were thinking.  You were thinking......"  They would go on to describe what my thoughts were. Products of their own twisted little imaginations.  Nowhere near what I was thinking.

The subsequent pieces are: 'After the bath' and 'The lost pleiad'