Woman with Iris

By 1895, when Bouguereau painted this, the art world around him had shifted. The Impressionists he disliked were winning over the critics, and the smooth, polished manner he stood for was starting to look old-fashioned. None of that dented his sales. American collectors in particular paid handsomely for exactly this kind of picture: a pretty young woman, softly lit, holding a single iris, her skin given the porcelain finish he was famous for. He was 70 when he made it and still near the top of the market despite the changing taste. The painting came to Princeton as a family gift, from a Pittsburgh widow, in memory of her husband and her son, both graduates of the college.