William Bouguereau | Jeannie, 1868

"Jeannie" is an 1868 oil painting by French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905).

In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body.

As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde.

To many, he epitomized taste and refinement, and a respect for tradition.

To others, he was a competent technician stuck in the past.

Degas and his associates used the term "Bouguereauté" in a derogatory manner to describe any artistic style reliant on "slick and artificial surfaces", also known as a licked finish.

In an 1872 letter, Degas wrote that he strove to emulate Bouguereau's ordered and productive working style, although with Degas' famous trenchant wit, and the aesthetic tendencies of the Impressionists, it is possible the statement was meant to be ironic.

Paul Gauguin loathed him, rating him a round zero in Racontars de Rapin and later describing in Avant et après (Intimate Journals) the single occasion when Bouguereau made him smile on coming across a couple of his paintings in an Arles brothel, "where they belonged".