Die Morgenröte

By 1881 Bouguereau was one of the most sought-after painters in Paris, the leading name of the academic salons that the young Impressionists were busy rebelling against. While they roughened their brushwork, he did the opposite, and this figure is his answer. She is Dawn, the first of four canvases he would paint on the hours of the day, and she drifts barefoot just above a pond of water lilies, bending back to breathe in a white lily. The finish is so smooth the surface looks almost lit from within, with no visible stroke anywhere. This is the kind of polished, mythological beauty the Salon prized right at the point when it was starting to lose the argument to a rougher way of painting.