' Nymphs and Satyr ' William-Adolphe Bouguereau. French (1825-1905) Oil on canvas , circa 1873. Sterling and Francine Clark Institute , Williamstown , Massachusetts.

'Nymphs and Satyr' (Nymphes et Satires) was exhibited in Paris in 1873, a year before the Impressionists mounted their first exhibition. The painting was displayed in the bar of the Hoffman House Hotel, New York City until 1901, when it was bought and stored in a wharehouse, the buyer hoping to keep it's "offensive" content from the public. Robert Sterling Clark discovered the painting in storage and acquired it in 1942. Recently cleaned and restored the painting is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York , on loan from the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown , Massachusetts. According to the Clark Institute, in the painting " a group of Nymphs have been surprised while bathing in in a secluded pond, by a lascivious satyr. Some of the nymphs have retreated into the shadows on the right, others, braver than their friends, are trying to dampen the satyr's ardour by pulling him into the cold water - one of the satyr's hooves is already wet and he clearly wants to go no further . Bouguereau's working methods were traditional; he made a number of sketches and drawings of carefully posed human figures in complicated interconnected poses , linking them together in this wonderfully rhythmical composition.