Nymphs and Satyr

French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau painted this monumental canvas in 1873, showing four nymphs playfully pulling a reluctant satyr toward a woodland pool. The figures display the artist's extraordinary technical skill: luminous skin tones, flowing hair, and precisely rendered anatomy. The satyr resists, fearful of water.

Bouguereau exhibited the painting at the 1873 Paris Salon alongside a verse from the Roman poet Statius: "Conscious of his shaggy hide and from childhood untaught to swim, he dares not trust himself to deep waters." One critic called it "the greatest painting of our generation." American collector John Wolfe purchased it for 35,000 francs.

After Wolfe's death, the painting hung in the bar of New York's Hoffman House Hotel until 1901. A later buyer, finding it "offensive," stored it in a warehouse. Robert Sterling Clark discovered it there and acquired it in 1942. The painting now anchors the collection at the Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts.