''The Goose Girl'' is an 1891 painting by

William-Adolphe Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) 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 ...

, a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

academic painter Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie d ...

. ''The Goose Girl'' is one of many examples that Bouguereau specialized in paintings of beautiful women and innocent, barefoot, young peasant girls. It is part of the permanent collection of the

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd W ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Description

The life-size character in the foreground (on a frame measuring 152 × 74 cm) is that of a young girl represented full-length, turned to the right, her face oriented towards the viewer, slightly bent and smiling. She wears a blue skirt, a shawl on the shoulders placed on a white shirt with short or rolled up sleeves. Barefoot on a dirt road, she imposes herself on a flock of geese visible on both sides in the background against a background of green foliage, a wand in her hand, thereby indicating her function as a guard.

References

Paintings by William-Adolphe Bouguereau 1891 paintings Birds in art Paintings in New York (state) {{19C-painting-stub