William Adolphe Bouguereau grew up near Bordeaux as the child of a family originating from England. From the age of 12, he lived with his uncle, a priest. He decided that William should also become a priest and sent him to the seminary in the small town of Pons at the age of 14. This is where William first took art lessons and began to paint. He soon left the seminary, however, and returned to his family in Bordeaux, where he attended the city’s drawing school. In 1850, William won the Prix de Rome gaining him a three-year stay in Rome. He used this time to travel around Italy. Thereafter, he settled in Paris. His mythological and historical allegories in the neoclassical style with a highly glossy surface were presented several times at the Paris Salon and at the 1855 Universal Exhibition. Avant-garde contemporaries such as Edgar Degas despised Bougereau's painting, but his works were very popular with English and US collectors.