William-Adolphe Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle, France, on November 30, 1825, into a family of wine and olive oil merchants.
He seemed destined to join the family business but for the intervention of his uncle Eugene, a Roman Catholic priest, who taught him classical and Biblical subjects, and arranged for Bouguereau to go to high school.
Showing artistic talent early on, his father was convinced by a client to send him to the ecole des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, where he won first prize in figure painting for a depiction of Saint Roch.
This lovely plaque includes a stand for tabletop use and a hanger for wall mounting.
