The Nut Gatherers
In a grassy clearing, two young girls take a break from collecting hazelnuts. One girl holds a handful of nuts while the other is engrossed in play or a shared secret. Bouguereau's genre painting portrays everyday life, often featuring women and girls in agricultural or domestic settings. The girls in The Nut Gatherers are dressed plainly as peasants but appear unusually clean and content.
During the 1880s, the Paris Salon's official preferences shifted towards Naturalism, as demonstrated by the success of Jules Bastien-Lepage's Hay Makers (1877). Bouguereau was aware of these market changes and adapted his works accordingly, although his genre paintings retained the idealized perfection of his Neoclassical pieces.
Critics have accused Bouguereau of being overly sentimental, and The Nut Gatherers could support such claims. However, his later works demonstrate a remarkable naturalistic precision, exploring themes such as family relationships, contemplation, and harmony with nature. Mark Steven Walker wrote about Bouguereau's view of peasant life for an exhibition catalogue, praising the "heroic attention required to sustain such a vision of perfection in a less than perfect age." The Nut Gatherers remains popular today, with the Detroit Institute of Arts citing it as one of their most beloved works after purchasing it in 1952.
