Jefferson David Chalfant
1856–1931
Bouguereau’s Atelier at the Académie Julian, Paris, 1891
Oil on panel
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd
Jefferson David Chalfant first established himself as a fine artist in Wilmington, Delaware, and continued his studies at the Académie Julian in Paris with the French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. This view of Bouguereau’s studio at the Académie Julian documents the centrality of the nude study to academic practice, which typically rewarded faithfulness to the realist tradition and discouraged artistic invention. Chalfant followed in the footsteps of several generations of American artists who studied the latest fashionable—and marketable—academic styles in Europe.
