Portrait De Ferdinand Chaigneau 

Curator: Here we have a painting attributed to William Bouguereau, entitled "Portrait de Ferdinand Chaigneau". Notice the impasto technique and figurative style. What is your first reaction? Editor: The initial vibe is brooding intensity. He's holding what looks like a pastel stick almost like a cigarette—artist energy. Sort of mysterious. Curator: Indeed. There is a visual focus, and tension. The overall dark color scheme adds to this. Editor: True, but it’s more than darkness. The light catching his cheek, his hand...it's theatrical, like Caravaggio’s shadow-play. He almost looks like he is about to either draw or strike the viewer. Curator: From a formal perspective, notice the careful rendering of light and shadow. Bouguereau emphasizes form and volume through tonal gradations, especially on the face. Editor: And the pose—three-quarter view, classic for portraiture, but it also sets up this off-kilter feel, this feeling that we've caught him at a very specific, charged moment. And the background fades into almost nothing; no distractions. The artist, in effect, demands your complete and undivided attention. Curator: Certainly. The artist uses the gaze, averted and directed into an unseen place to imply a life of internal dialogue and rumination. It speaks volumes about artistic expression. The painting creates this sense that you, as the viewer, can almost penetrate into his essence. Editor: So much in one small glance! To think an artist managed that with merely impasto, oil and canvas... It's quite romantic in its intensity, now I look closer. He seems to both see, and foresee. It is powerful work, whatever Ferdinand Chaigneau was really like. Curator: I concur; and that's what I find compelling; the mystery of the sitter; enhanced by painterly sophistication. It is nice to simply reflect upon a painter showing a painter in the language only painters understand. Editor: Exactly! An intimate glimpse into a life given over to looking and then to making, it's meta and magnificent!