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Nymphs and Satyr Slider Image 1
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Letter from William Bouguereau to John Wolfe regarding the sale of "Nymphs and Satyr."

Nymphs and Satyr Slider Image 3

Article by Nancy Randolph, published in the Society section of the Sunday News, 10 January 1943.

Nymphs and Satyr Slider Image 4

Article published in the New York Herald Tribune, January 10, 1943.

Nymphs and Satyr Slider Image 5

Article by an unknown author published in the 10 January 1943 edition of the New York Times.

Nymphs and Satyr Slider Image 6

Pre-conservation

Nymphs and Satyr Slider Image 7

Interior view of the Hoffman House bar with Bouguereau's Nymphs and Satyr. Print mount identifies the printmaker as H. A. Thompson & Wylie. Created March 1890. Downloaded from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

French, 1825–1905

Nymphs and Satyr

1873

Three nymphs playfully drag a Satyr into a woodland pond, while a fourth calls to her companions in the distance. Satyrs—half-man, half-goat—were reputedly unable to swim. Bouguereau exhibited this painting, accompanied by a verse from the Latin poem that inspired it, at the 1873 Paris Salon. Its vaguely classical subject provided an ideal opportunity to demonstrate his skill painting the female nude from multiple viewpoints. An American collector immediately bought the work, which eventually ended up on display in the bar of New York City’s Hoffman House, where Sterling Clark first encountered it.

Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 102 1/2 x 72 in. (260.4 x 182.9 cm) Frame: 122 1/8 x 90 3/4 x 7 in. (310.2 x 230.5 x 17.8 cm)
Object Number 1955.658
Acquisition Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status On View

Image Caption

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Nymphs and Satyr, 1873, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.658

Select Bibliography

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EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

The artist, sold to Wolfe, 26 June 1873; John Wolfe, New York (1873–82, his sale, Leavitt & Co., New York, 5–6 Apr. 1882, no. 96, sold to Stokes); Edward S. Stokes, New York (1882–d. 1901); James D. Leary, New York (probably 1901–d. 1902); Daniel J. Leary, New York, his son, by descent (probably 1902–d. 1942); estate of Daniel Leary (in 1942, sold to Herbert H. Elfers, 5 June 1942, as agent for Clark); Robert Sterling Clark (1942–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.

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