Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau's The Dove Fanciers (1883)

 


Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau

The Dove Fanciers c.1883

Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau’s “The Dove Fanciers” is a scene that shows two women, one staring at the other while the other looks at and contemplates the white dove. This seems to be an intimate exchange with disregard for the viewer. The women are barefoot in nature. One woman holds a birdcage, while the other holds a dove. They are a triangle intertwined into each other, with the bird cage as an artifact of change. The painting represents transition. The 19th century was a transitionary period for women. This was when women were gaining their independence and being freed, like the dove in the women's arms. The woman with the dove is dressed in white and pink and is kneeling before the woman in blue, holding the birdcage. The woman with the dove is the representation of change. She is a renewal of feminine ideologies dressed in white, and she reflects innocence. In comparison, the woman in blue holding the bird cage represents the pastTh of what once was deemed an acceptable woman. The background behind the woman with the dove is dark to represent that this transitionary period is not easy. The door to the cage is open, but they are still not completely free, as the dove, one wing out, is still clasped in the woman’s arms.

                These figures are not the typical passive female figures of the 19th century. While the woman with the dove is kneeling and exudes innocence, she is looking toward the other woman for acknowledgment. The woman in blue holds the bird cage and contemplates the dove, symbolizing a new beginning making the viewer contemplate their own ideologies and thoughts. The women are not facing the viewer directly. The women have no regard for the viewer, which turns the viewer into the passive subject while the women are the active participants. This is their future that they contemplate just as they contemplate the white dove and each other. The male becomes the other, a separate entity that is alien to their experience.

This is all beautifully done in the Classical Academy style, which is a statement. Most professional painters were men during this time, with very few women painters. Bouguereau was even more exceptional in that she focused on figurative painting, considered a masculine art form (Pearo, 2023). Since a successful woman painter did this painting, it enforces the transition scene. Bouguereau was the only American woman to win a salon medal and exhibited thirty-six paintings in her career. Bouguereau’s paintings were accepted into 25 Paris Salons and won a bronze medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle(Pearo, 2023). This successful woman artist experienced the struggle to be a recognized and respected artist. Her hope for a better future for women is reflected in the “Dove Fanciers.”

Reference

Pearo, C. (n.d.). Elizabeth Jane Gardener Bouguereau La Captive. Sotheby’s. Retrieved September 22, 2023, from https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2019/european-art-n10009/lot.412.html


Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau 1837-1922

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