At the Edge of the Brook

In June 1879 Bouguereau sold this canvas straight from his studio to Goupil, his Paris dealers, who logged it as Petites baigneuses, little bathers. By August it was already in New York with the dealers Knoedler. In those years much of Bouguereau's work went to American buyers, and this one probably ended up with a collector in St. Louis, John Julius O'Fallon. The scene is small in incident. Two children wait at the water's edge. One leans against a rock, lifting the hem of a grey skirt. The other, seated, tugs at a white stocking. The two are glancing sideways at each other. The signature and the date 1879 run along the lower left. The picture has stayed in private hands and was offered at Sotheby's in 2021.