La Jeunesse de Bacchus, the largest work of William Bouguereau’s career and an icon of French academic painting, will highlight Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York on May 14. The monumental canvas stands 20 feet in length and 11 feet in height. It has been in Bouguereau’s studio in Paris since it was completed in 1884 – the culmination of two years of work. It has left the studio only three times; when initially presented at the Salon in 1884, followed by exhibitions in London and Antwerp through 1885, for the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889, and as part of a retrospective touring the Musée du Petit-Palais in Paris, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford in 1984-85.
On offer this spring by the direct descendants of the artist, La Jeunesse de Bacchus will carry an estimate of $25/35 million. Here is a video about the work.