William Bouguereau's paintings were ridiculed by some impressionists and modernists as having a licked finish. But the fact is that on closer inspection all art have some painterly touch to it. John Singer Sargent is one of the painters who is famous for his painterly style. But the fact is that he actually worked very hard to achieve the effect that he had painted the picture with great ease at one stroke. He scraped out and repainted many parts of his paintings. Look at one of the paintings of Bouguereau. Notice how the folds on the skirt are painted in a painterly way.
