Innocence

A young, nude girl sits on a rock in a sunlit forest, her body in a three-quarter view while she gazes away from the viewer; a white cloth pools at her feet and a dark blue drape rests on the stone beside her. The painting is executed with Bouguereau's smooth, highly finished brushwork and subtle tonal shifts that model the skin and give the figure a luminous, sculptural presence. The restrained palette of warm flesh tones, greens and browns, with blue and white drapery, and the serene, idealized mood illustrate his academic realism and classical approach to innocence.