Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/The Wave

The Wave (La Vague)
Voting period ends on 18 Jul 2010 at 04:47:54 (UTC)
 * Reason:I think most people like William-Adolphe Bouguereau. This is a high-quality image of one of his works, and shows off his style very well.
 * Articles in which this image appears:William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Art nude
 * FP category for this image:Featured pictures/Artwork/Paintings
 * Creator:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)


 * Support as nominator --Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:47, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support A beautiful painting from a truly wonderful painter, would be a great addition as a FP. — raeky ( talk 05:03, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support beautiful painting -- George Chernilevsky  talk 05:32, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support, this is exactly what I mean when I say we need more fine art FPs. J Milburn (talk) 09:55, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Info Another of Bougereau's works is an FP on en-wp: File:Bouguereau-Linnocence.jpg. Papa Lima Whiskey  (talk) 10:28, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * There's also File:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Dante And Virgil In Hell (1850).jpg. But this does a good job at showing a recurring theme in his work - his portrayal of the female form - as well as showing his expertise in anatomy, and we've never limited ourselves to just one image by what is a fairly major artist. There's probably a case for spreading the FP paintings by him a bit more widely, but that's true for far more FPs than just the Bouguereau ones. Adam Cuerden (talk) 12:41, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support -- I like Bouguereau very much though he has been considered as a lesser artist. As for this picture, I can't help feeling it is somehow kitschy. Support anyway as we need good reproductions of fine art. -- Alvesgaspar (talk) 10:40, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment Has anyone seen the original to know what color it really has? Bouguereau’s other works suggest he wasn’t adverse to warm tones. Most images retrieved from a Google image search—but not all—have this blue cast. But, as if often the case, all it takes is one high-res image to get on the Internet and if it isn’t copyrighted, it is multiplied a thousand fold. I note that some versions of this painting, like this one, are more color balanced whereas still others, like this one, are even slightly bluer. I can see that the sky is partially cloudy and the way he has no direct sunlight reflecting off the waves and the diffuse shadows beneath the lady makes it quite clear that a cloud is partially blocking the sun here. The eye working the way it does, it tends to quickly balance the RGB so everything takes on an overall white balance. On a purely subjective, artistic note, I have a healthy dose of skepticism that Bouguereau would have depicted a nude bather using a color palette reminiscent of the arctic. Of course, that may have been precisely his intent so as to give her nudity an even-more vulnerable look (in addition to her virginal, cherub-like body and milky complexion). It would nevertheless be quite nice to find someone expert on this painting who could attest for certain what it *really* looks like before slapping it up on the Main Page for the world to see. Greg L (talk) 21:51, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment Fantastic research on the topic. Gut Monk (talk) 01:23, 11 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid we won't be able to know what the 'real' colours are unless a digital copy of the image taken with one of those calibration targets is made available. Even in that case, we have to trust that the picture was made with a calibrated lighting. Maybe the bluish touch is purposeful and the lady is an arctic mermaid... -- Alvesgaspar (talk) 22:23, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The _Vast_ majority of them on tineye are in agreement with these colors and the best I can tell it's in private collection, so chances of seeing it is slim. — raeky ( talk 22:50, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support She must skinny dip a lot, look how pale and obviously cold and clammy her skin must be, yet she's smiling like she just found $20. Not sure the detail or size is what it could be, I was hoping to be able to see canvass fibers. --I′d※&lt;3※Ɵɲɛ (talk) 01:00, 11 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Mildly support Gut Monk (talk) 01:23, 11 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Beautiful!--Mbz1 (talk) 03:07, 11 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support, though I agree with Greg L that it would be good to know if these are the true colours or not. It's very indicative of the artist's later work. I dig it. Amphy (talk) 06:45, 12 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Note about color I contacted Epic Stitch (Fine Arts Collection). They sell prints of this for $40. As you can see, their Web-based depiction of The Wave is in warmer colors than shown here. If they respond, I’ll let you all know. Greg L (talk) 02:14, 14 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Not sure that's the best palace to ask, they sell a cross stitch interpretation of the painting... hardly an art expert. — raeky ( talk 02:27, 14 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh… (darn). I didn’t realize what “cross stitch” was. I’ll see if I can find someone else. Greg L (talk) 02:41, 14 July 2010 (UTC)
 * After looking at what sellers of lithographic reproductions have, it seems quite clear that Bouguereau made the image with an icy-blue cast. The differences between the various reproductions of “ice”—that I can see on the Web, anyway—show that ours is probably close enough. I note cqout.com. When I scroll down to the bottom of that page, though the sand colors are more saturated, there is clearly bluish cast for the overall scene and the nude. This isn’t the first time I’ve gone to litho-reproduction-selling houses and seen the sand with more saturated colors than here. I can’t see how these questions over quibbling color details are at all provable one way or another. So I’m done on this point. As the saying goes… “close enough for government work.” Greg L (talk) 02:58, 14 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Wonderful painting Old Al (Talk) 03:31, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

-- Jujutacular  T · C 06:36, 18 July 2010 (UTC)