William Bourguereau was one of the masters of the painting in the 19th century, creating beautiful pictures who's realism pushes the boundaries of beauty. His art was so beautiful that other great artists of his time including Degas believed that he would be the most remembered artist of that time. Neatly created his art shows none of the brush strokes that would be popular later, rather it consists of solid and smooth surfaces to create a soft look that is not ethereal but obtainable. The beauty of his art is not that his work appears to be a dream but rather that it appears to be something you could meet, see, and know in a much more perfect world.

Though much of his work being more traditional in nature would not work well as art for children it is important to bear in mind that cute art is not necessarily only for children, rather cute art is an emotional reaction, a warming of the heart, and his work does that well.

His art is very pastoral in nature the painting "Mother and Children" is a warm and wonderful painting, showing his strength and portraits for much of his art seemed to be in this style. Here we see a mother sitting with two children, one held in her arms and the other asleep beside her. The forced perspective on the child is so well rendered as to look simple but no mistake should be made this is one of the most difficult positions to draw a person in convincingly. The darker fall background pushes forward the three figures in the painting causing the viewers to explore them before breaking free to look at a building in the distance, but the bright warmth of the figures always calls to the viewer's eyes. One of the abilities that sets Bouguereau apart from many of the other artists and makes him a master is his ability to bring the childlike cuteness to girls who are leaving childhood behind. Knitting Girl is one such painting, the young girl depicted in this painting is warm with a gentleness that expounds on the sad look in her eye. For the gentleness of the painting is normally reserved only for paintings of children. By utilizing many of the aspects and rules of cute art in this painting Bouguereau has made a picture all the more sad thanks to the sad look within the girls eyes, for soft and cute works of art project more emotion in many cases then other forms of work.

We see this same calm beauty reflected in the much happier picture "Two Girls." A painting of two girls sitting close together while one plays a song on a little wooden flute. Again much like one might expect to see in a portrait this work of art is made wonderful by the unique warmth that Bouguereau brings to such pictures. The figures in this painting seem to blend becoming one with the simple background, for they are at rest with the world around them, much like Bouguereau's great works of art.