uncle at Saintonge, a priest, who had much sympathy with the boy's
wish to paint, and he left him free to do the best he could for
himself in art. He got a chance to paint some portraits, and when he
and his uncle talked the matter over It was decided that he should
take the money got for them, and go to Paris. It was there that he
sought Picot, his first truly helpful teacher; and there, for the
first time he learned more than he already knew about art.

All Bouguereau's opportunities in life were made by himself, by his
own genius. No one gave him anything; he earned all. He longed to go
to Italy, and in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts he won the Prix de Rome,
which made possible a journey to the land of great artists. The French
Government began to buy his work, and he began to receive commissions
to decorate walls in great buildings; thus, gradually, he made for
himself fame and fortune.

When this artist undertook to paint sacred subjects, of great dignity,
he was not at his best; but when he chose children and mothers and
everyday folk engaged about their everyday business, he painted
beautifully. Americans have bought many of his pictures and he has had
more popularity in this country than anywhere outside of France.

Some authorities give the birthplace of Bouguereau as La Rochelle; at
any rate he died there at midnight, on the nineteenth of August, 1905.

PLATE--THE VIRGIN AS CONSOLER

The main distinction about this artist's pictured faces is the
peculiarly earnest expression he has given to the eyes. In this
picture of the Virgin there is great genius in the pose and death-look