The Shepherdess (1889)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Pastourelle (The Shepherdess)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1889
oil on canvas
158.75 × 93.345 cm
Philbrook Museum of Art

The Shepherdess (Pastourelle) (the word is a term for a shepherdess in Southern French dialect) is a painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau completed in 1889. It depicts an idyllic, pastoral scene of a lone young woman in peasant attire posed for the artist, her arms balancing a stick across her shoulders, standing barefooted in the foreground. In the background are oxen grazing in the field. It is one of many paintings by Bouguereau depicting shepherdesses, including one of the same name created in 1881.

The subject is a model employed by Bouguereau for this and other paintings, including The Bohemian.

It is currently in the permanent collection at the Philbrook Museum of Art.