Born in La Rochelle, France in 1825, Bouguereau began his career in Paris in 1846 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a student of Picot. In 1850 he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome for his canvas Zenobia Found by the Shepherds on the Shores of the Araxes. He then left for Italy, where he spent four years studying the great masters of the Renaissance. Upon his return to France, he attracted a wide following with his mythological and allegorical paintings, although his portrait paintings are perhaps held in higher esteem today. His work was characterized by a highly finished, technically impeccable realism and a sentimental interpretation of his subject matter. Much of his career was devoted to secular and religious mural paintings. The churches of Sainte-Clothilde and Saint-Augustin and the Bartholony and Pereire mansions in Paris, the concert hall of the Grand Theatre in Bourdeaux, and the cathedral in La Rochelle were all enhanced by his great compositions.

Bouguereau was one of the key supporters of The Salon, the first official art exhibition held in France and limited to members of the Royal Academy. The term Salon derived from the Salon d'Apollon, in the Louvre, where the annual exhibitions were first held. The limited number of artists who were allowed to show at these exhibitions had a monoploy on publicity and sales of art in Paris. Hundreds of thousands of visitors attended the Salons—the average-sized crowd in the 1880s was forty thousand. Bouguereau exhibited regularly at the Salon for several decades and became the most famous French painter of his day. As a strict academician and proponent of official orthodoxy in painting, he played a major role in the exclusion of the works of the Impressionists and other experimental painters from the Salon. Manet, Degas, and Cezanne often expressed regret at being excluded from what they sarcastically called the 'Salon de Monsieur Bougeureau'.

For nearly a century, Bouguereau was painted as the arch-villain by modernist ideologues who accused him of not recognizing the Impressionists. His work was largely suppressed and his name omitted from many art history texts. In the past few years, however, Bouguereau's paintings have returned to prominence as part of a renewed interest in academic painting and of Ecole des Beaux-Arts works in general. He is now rightfully considered again to be the European artist who indisputably set the academic standard for painting in the 19th century.

Bouguereau's Pieta was painted as a memorial to his second child, Georges, who died at the age of fifteen in 1875. Not a commissioned work, the Pieta is one of the most imporatant paintings by Bouguereau still in private hands, as well as a masterpiece of 19th century religious art.

The Tyler Museum of Art is located on the east side of the Tyler Junior College campus at 1300 South Mahon. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Museum is closed Mondays. A voluntary admission charge of $3.50 for adults and $1.50 for senior citizens and children helps support Museum programs and is greatly appreciated.