Nymphs and Satyr

Nymphs and Satyr (Nymphes et Satires) is a painting, oil on canvas, created by artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1873.

Nymphs and Satyr was exhibited in Paris in 1873, a year before the Impressionists mounted their first exhibition.

The painting was displayed in the bar of the Hoffman House Hotel, New York City until 1901, when it was bought and stored in a warehouse, the buyer hoping to keep its 'offensive' content from the public. Robert Sterling Clark discovered the piece in storage and acquired it in 1942.

Recently clean and restored, the piece is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, on loan from the Clark Art Institute located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, through April 2014, while the museum undergoes renovations.

According to the Clark Institute, in the painting "a group of nymphs have been surprised, while bathing in a secluded pond, by a lascivious satyr. Some of the nymphs have retreated into the shadows on the right; others, braver than their friends, are trying to dampen the satyr's ardor by pulling him into the cold water -- one of the satyr's hooves is already wet and he clearly wants to go no further. Bouguereau’s working methods were traditional; he made a number of sketches and drawings of carefully posed human figures in complicated interconnected poses, linking them together in this wonderfully rhythmical composition."

The painting, the largest and one of the most beloved of the Clark collection, was cleaned prior to March 10, 2012 with the help of a grant from the Parnassus Foundation, courtesy of Jane and Raphael Bernstein.