Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau: William's Death

"L'Imprudent" by Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau

"Mark Steven Walker, in his biography on William Adolphe Bouguereau, relates the artist's final hours:

'When the grand old man felt his last hour had come, he gathered his family around him, dictated his last will and testament, and spoke to them. Then he said, 'Tell the priest to come, now...'

The silence from July to October, in terms of Elizabeth's writing, is a painful testimony to the distress she endured. Two cable messages arrived one after the other at Exeter. The first, dated August 19, 1905, read: 'Uncle William delicate health myself well, Love Aunt Lizzie.' The second, August 20, said: 'I have just paid a final good-bye to my dear husband. Love to all. Aunt Lizzie.'

In the September 29 letter she writes:

'I have recovered from my recent fatigue but as I grow stronger I realize more and more the aching void in my life. My dear husband and I passed ten years of perfect affection together. All our tastes were the same, and as he grew older he depended so entirely upon me that I almost never left him. I shall try to be useful in some way. At present my family here need me. We have most important business questions to settle, but all goes as I wish.

A few days later she continues:

I had strength and courage for all the sad scenes through which I was called to pass, but after the great effort was over I have felt very weary, and my determination to reply myself to each of my hundreds of letters of condolences has not yet been realized. I cannot be reconciled to my terrible loss... I realize that God's will was for the best, but it is very hard, and in all the important decisions I have to make for myself and for others I do miss the good counsel which I found in my dear husband.

He is universally mourned for - such a loss to his friends and to all the pupils who depended on him. So many who have not the moral force to fight on alone find their career blasted. 

I am not ill. I am beginning to feel rested. I see the good friends who call. It is a comfort to talk with them of him.'"

(Excerpts from "Elizabeth Jane Gardner: Her Life, Her Work, Her Letters," MA Thesis by Charles Pearo, McGill University, 1997.)