William-Adolphe Bouguereau · 1873

Nymphs and Satyr

Posters from $10.82 USD · Canvas from $28.14 USD

Ships anywhere in the USA

Four laughing nymphs hauling a reluctant satyr into a forest pool — Bouguereau's most famous mythological scene. Clark Art Institute.

Up to 36 × 51.9 in · portrait

Size

Format & finish

Archival cotton canvas stretched over a wooden frame. Ready to hang as-is. No external frame.

Scale next to a 5'10" person

No sales tax added at checkout

Visa · Mastercard · Amex · Discover · Apple Pay · Google Pay

Hand-printed in our studio

Free US shipping on prints over $100

Delivered in 5 business days

30-day returns

Materials & quality

›Canvas & inks

Giclée-printed on archival cotton canvas with fade-resistant pigment inks, hand-stretched over wooden bars. Gallery-wrapped — ready to hang with no extra frame needed.

›Floater frame

Hand-finished solid wood floater frame in five finishes. The canvas sits inside with a clean shadow gap — the way galleries hang contemporary canvas.

›Posters

Premium archival paper — 200 gsm soft matte or 230 gsm vibrant glossy. Ships flat or rolled, ready for your own frame.

›Faithful to the source

Printed from the highest-resolution museum and archive scans available. Each painting's maximum size is capped at what its source scan can support at gallery quality.

About this painting

The story of Nymphs and Satyr

A satyr has wandered too close to a forest pool and four nymphs have decided he is going in. One pulls his arm, one shoves from behind, one has him by the horn, and the fourth calls to friends offstage to come and watch. Bouguereau painted it in 1873, at the height of his Salon fame, and it spent years hanging in a New York hotel bar before the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, rescued it. It is a large, funny, technically absurd painting: skin that looks lit from inside, water you could dip a hand in, and not a brushstroke visible anywhere.

This one is for a wall that can take a tall, dramatic image. The dominant colors are deep forest green and umber shadow with a column of warm, pale flesh tones running up the middle, so it brings a lot of light into a dark room. It suits a bathroom with real space, a bedroom, a stairwell, or a den, and it is at home with traditional, maximalist, or Victorian-leaning interiors. We offer it up to the Extra Large at 36 × 51.9 in, and that is the size that makes the figures near life-size and turns it into a room's whole personality. The Large at 24 × 34.6 in is a strong choice above a bathtub or a chest of drawers.

Bouguereau's own The Birth of Venus shares the marble skin and the same sea-and-sky glow. Waterhouse's Hylas and the Nymphs tells nearly the same story with a darker ending, and Gérôme's Pygmalion and Galatea is the other great Academic fantasy of the decade. More from William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

We print from a public-domain photograph of the Clark's canvas, in our own studio, without smoothing or warming the skin tones beyond the original.

About the artist

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life, he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. He finished 822 known paintings, but the whereabouts of many are still unknown.

All William-Adolphe Bouguereau prints →

Biography adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Frequently asked

Nymphs and Satyr— questions & answers

›What does Nymphs and Satyr depict?

Painted in 1873, Bouguereau's most famous mythological scene shows four laughing nymphs hauling a reluctant satyr into a forest pool — playful revenge rendered with his flawless academic finish.

›Where can I buy a Nymphs and Satyr canvas print?

Chromora prints Nymphs and Satyr on museum-quality archival cotton canvas, hand-finished in our studio and shipped anywhere in the USA. Prints over $100 USD ship free.

›Where is the original Nymphs and Satyr?

The original is held at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Pairs well with