What type of lighting techniques did William-Adolphe Bouguereau mostly use?

Question

I was studying several of William-Adolphe Bouguereau paintings and I am wondering if any one knows exactly what type of lighting techniques he typically used? It is difficult for me to tell on many of his works.

Answer 1

William Adolphe Bouguereau achieves his lighting effects using a shading technique called “Chiaroscuro”.
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Chiaroscuro is literally Italian for "light-dark"

Chiaroscuro is the effect of light modelling in painting, drawing or printmaking, where three-dimensional volume is suggested by the value gradation of colour and the analytical division of light and shadow shapes.

Chiaroscuro in art is characterized by strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for using contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects such as the human body.

Bouguereau surfaces have a “licked finish,” a process codified by the French Academy whereby the surface of painting was smoothed so much that presence of the artist’s hand was no longer visible.