At the Edge of the Brook

In December 1875 the Paris dealers Goupil bought this canvas from Bouguereau for 6,000 francs. Goupil traded across Europe and America, and pictures of country girls like this one travelled well. About 18 months later the firm passed it to its own branch in The Hague for more than twice that price. The model sits barefoot on a rock beside a stream, with red flowers in her hair, holding one foot in both hands and looking straight out at us. From The Hague the trail picks up in America, in private hands in Pennsylvania and Texas. In 1979 it was bought by the New Jersey collector Fred Ross, who later co-wrote the complete catalogue of Bouguereau's paintings. It then went to the Iuchi collection in Japan, which has kept it on deposit at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo since 2022.