Description
The artist himself described his painting of a night class: "Under smoldering electric lights, a model in historical costume poses for eager, ambitious art students. A few of them might have real talent, some could become commercial artists, but most, unfortunately, have no future in art at all." Although trained in a conservative academic style, Vibert here pokes fun at his own artistic tradition. Vibert was fond of caricaturing the pretentious elements of 19th-century French society. The work was shown at the 1881 Salon exhibition.
Provenance
Alonzo J. Tinsley. New York, Sotheby's PB 84 sale, 18 May 1977 (lot 341), The Life Drawing Class, signed, panel, 24œ x 18 in.; Shepherd Gallery, New York. Bought in June 1977 by Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Bequeathed to the CMA in 1980.
Accession Number
1980.292
Medium
oil on wood panel
Dimensions
Framed: 97.2 x 82.5 x 12.5 cm (38 1/4 x 32 1/2 x 4 15/16 in.); Unframed: 60.8 x 45.4 cm (23 15/16 x 17 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Panel Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Jehan-Georges Vibert (1840-1902) was a French painter known for the precisely observed, characterfully humorous genre paintings of clerical and monastic subjects that make him one of the most accomplished genre painters of the French academic tradition. A Night Class from c. 1881 depicts a night class in the precisely observed, characterfully humorous manner that distinguishes Vibert's best work from the more general genre painting of his contemporaries. Vibert was known for his precisely observed, characterfully humorous depictions of clerical life—particularly the comic aspects of monastic existence—and his work was enormously popular in his time for its characterfully humorous treatment of religious subjects.
Cultural Impact
A Night Class is important in the history of French genre painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, characterfully humorous manner that Vibert brought to clerical subjects as one of the most accomplished genre painters of the French academic tradition. Vibert's precisely observed, characterfully humorous depictions of clerical life—enormously popular in his time for their comic treatment of religious subjects—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in French genre painting, and the c. 1881 painting shows this tradition at its most characterfully humorous.
Why It Matters
A Night Class is Vibert's characterfully humorous French genre: a night class rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most accomplished genre painters of the French academic tradition. The c. 1881 painting shows the characterfully humorous treatment of clerical subjects that made Vibert enormously popular.
