Lot 159: Robert Marshall Root (American, 1863-1938)

The Virgin of Consolation
signed, inscribed and dated 'W. Bouguereau.1877. Copied by Robert Root. Paris. 92' (lower left)
oil on canvas
36 x 26 1/4 in. (91.4 x 66.7 cm.)
Painted in 1892

Robert Marshall Root, a painter, etcher and decorator, was born in Shelbyville, Illinois. He studied first at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and continued his artistic education at the Academie Julian in Paris with J. P. Laurens, Benjamin Constant and Jules Lefebvre. The Academie Julian was established by the great master of French academic painting, William Adolphe Bouguereau. The school's strict methods were much like the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the French Academy in Rome. Students were asked to study the ancient statues of Greece and Rome, work on their mastery of the human anatomy with models and copy the paintings of the Old Masters in order to expand their grasp of composition, color and line.

During their tenure at the Academie Julian numerous students were asked to copy the work of a great master as a part of their program. Robert Marshall Root's selection of a work by William Bouguereau, the founder of the Academie, is both ambitious as well as flattering.

Today, Robert Marshall Roots paintings decorate the Attorney General's office in Springfield, the Masonic Temple at Decatur as well as numerous courthouses in Illinois.