The Return of Spring

Central to the composition is a nude woman standing in a sunlit meadow, her long dark hair loose and her arms crossed modestly across her chest. She is encircled by several cherubs with wings, some hovering above and others clustered at her feet among flowering plants, creating a vertical, pyramidal arrangement against a blue sky and distant trees. The painting exhibits Bouguereau’s hallmark Academic style: flawlessly smooth skin, refined modeling, subtle tonal gradations, and a luminous, idealized rendering of the figures within a serene, pastoral setting.