Detail of The Baby, Or Going to the Bath by Louis Prang on Flickr. Click for full image (897 x 1200).

Most Remastered Bouguereaus on this site are contemporary works of art, based on, or inspired by, William Bouguereau’s original paintings. The one shown above is an exception. It was made as a chromolithograph by the French painter’s contemporary Louis Prang between 1861 and 1897, and based on Bouguereau’s undated painting Going to the Bath.

Louis Prang (1824-1909), a German immigrant, ran a highly successful printing firm in Boston, USA, during the late nineteenth century. His company produced high quality reproductions of major art work and greeting cards using the complex technique of chromolithography. Prang is often referred to as the “Father of the American Christmas Card” because holiday cards were rarely exchanged in America until his factory began producing them in the 1870s.

The Boston Public Library’s Print Department is fortunate to have more than 1,500 chromolithographs and dozens of sample books of greeting cards produced by Louis Prang & Company. Along with the Hallmark Historical Collection in Kansas City, Missouri, the BPL’s Louis Prang & Company Collection is one of the two major sources of information on Prang’s lithographs.

Below you can compare Bouguereau’s original painting with Prang’s chromolithograph. Click each to view them in more details.