Claude Charles Bourgonnier was a pupil of Cabanel, Jean-François Millet and of Falguière (the sculpter). His works consisted of landscapes, genre scenes but more often opulent nudes, typifying the ideals of La Belle Époque. Bourgonnier regularly exhibited at the Salon from 1881. In 1900 he was conferred a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle de Paris.