The Virgin of Consolation by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

The Virgin of Consolation by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Mater Afflictorum

The step beneath the throne carries the words MATER AFFLICTORUM — Mother of the Afflicted, echoing Consolatrix Afflictorum, one of the Virgin’s titles in the Litany of Loreto — and the picture is a meditation on exactly that. Mary sits enthroned before a gilded hanging, her hands lifted to heaven in appeal. Across her lap a young woman has thrown herself face down, both arms stretched out, hands clasped, past the point of holding herself up. On the ground at their feet lies the reason: a small boy, dead, a few roses scattered beside him.

Nothing in the composition softens it. What it offers instead is the posture of the Virgin herself — not looking at the mother, not looking at the child, but upward, on their behalf.

Painted in a year of loss

Bouguereau painted it in 1877, the year he buried his wife Nelly and an infant son within months of each other. He had already lost two other children. He was the most successful academic painter in France, famous for nymphs and mythologies, and this is what he sent to the Salon that spring, where it was catalogued as number 270.

Where it hangs

The painting belongs to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and has hung on long-term deposit at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg since 1982. It measures just over two metres tall.

About this print

Made from a high-resolution photograph of the painting in its frame; the frame has been cropped away to the painted edge. The tall format suits the vertical sizes offered.

Sources: Musée d’Orsay (on deposit at Strasbourg) · Wikidata Q17496102 · Wikimedia Commons