The Shepherdess (the word is a term for a shepherdess in Southern French dialect) is a painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French academic painter. William Bouguereau was a traditionalist; in his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of Classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body.-Life and career :William-Adolphe...

 completed in 1889. It depicts an idyllic, pastoral

Pastoral

The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...

 scene of a lone young woman in peasant

Peasant

A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

 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

Shepherd

A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...

, including one of the same name created in 1881.

The subject is a model

Model (art)

Art models are models who pose for photographers, painters, sculptors, and other artists as part of their work of art. Art models who pose in the nude for life drawing are usually called life models...

 employed by Bouguereau for this and other paintings, including The Bohemian

The Bohemian

The Bohemian is a painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau completed in 1890. It depicts a barefooted young woman sitting on a concrete bench on the south bank of the Seine across from Notre Dame de Paris resting a violin in her lap. Her right arm is resting on her thigh while the palm of her left...

.

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

Philbrook Museum of Art

The Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma is an art museum and former home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve Phillips. , the museum has a staff of 60 and an operating budget of nearly $6 million....

.

See also

• Young Shepherdess
• The Shepherdess (1881)
• The Young Shepherdess
  The Young Shepherdess
  The Young Shepherdess is an 1885 painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau . It is currently owned by the San Diego Museum of Art....
  
  
• Young Shepherdess Standing
• The Little Shepherdess
• The Goose Girl
  The Goose Girl (painting)
  The Goose Girl is an 1891 painting by Adolphe William Bouguereau, a French academic painter. The Goose Girl is one of many examples that Bouguereau specialized in paintings of beautiful women, and innocent, barefoot, young peasant girls....
  
  

External links

• The Shepherdess at the Philbrook Museum of Art