Jehan-Georges Vibert

Henry C. Gibson, Philadelphia (by 1875)
Bequeathed to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1892
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, October 28, 1986, lot 56, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

 

Paris, Salon, 1867, no. 1523 (awarded gold medal (the first prize))  Cincinnati, Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, Exhibition of Paintings, 1875, no. 109
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Henry Gibson Bequest, 1896
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Beneficent Connoisseurs, 1974, no. 96

Eugène  Montrosier, Les Artistes Modernes, Les Peintres de Genre, Paris, 1881, p. 122
Edward Strahan [Earl Shinn], Art Treasures of America, Philadelphia, 1879-82, vol. I, pp. 68 and 80, illustrated, plate 32, opp. p. 74
Edward Strahan., Etudes in Modern French Art, New York, 1882, p. 26 Jehan-Georges Vibert, "The Roll-Call After The Pillage," The Century Magazine, March 1896, pp. 722-25, illustrated
W.  Montgomery, ed., American Art and American Collections, Boston, 1889, p. 119
Jehan-Georges Vibert, La Comédie en Peinture, Paris, London, and New York, 1902, vol. I, pp. 146-49
"An Appreciation of Jehan Georges Vibert," Brush and Pencil, September 1902, p. 328
Eric Zafran, Cavaliers and Cardinals, exh. cat., Cincinnati, 1992, p. 15, illustrated, fig. 15
Zamacois, Fortuny, Meissonier, exh. cat., Bilbao, 2006, pp. 42-43, illustrated in color, fig. 28

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This fine painting is in lovely condition. The canvas is unlined but the tacking edges have been reinforced. Because the canvas is not lined, the paint layer is quite visibly cracked yet this could be corrected with an appropriate lining. The only retouches of note are in the far left sky where what appears to be some pentimenti have been retouched. The retouches are reasonably successful but could be reexamined and lessened. Under ultraviolet light the dark colors fluoresce quite strongly, yet except for a small retouch situated above the head of the drunkard on the far right, there does not appear to be any further retouching of significance.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The importance of this magnificent "history" painting for the young Vibert's career is related by Montrosier:
     
Not being able to bring the amateurs to his doors, Vibert resolved to follow their tastes, and in 1867 he boarded the "genre" as bravely as he had "the grand style," and with much more tangible success. The Roll-Call after the Pillage was medaled and Fortune herself lightened his doorway and entered into his studio. All the world is familiar with this lucky picture through innumerable reproductions...The scene, which passes in a charming village landscape, was so wittily written, so valiantly painted and in a scheme of color so subtle, that it pleased all the world; the amateurs of anecdotal genre, to tell it facetiously, decided that Monsieur Vibert had a future.¹

Just as Gérôme's treatment of a group of soldiers in the Récréation au Camp, shown at the Salon of 1855, was described as opening the door for the artist to "the camp of the Realists,"² Vibert's comparable depiction of a motley assortment of eighteenth century French mercenaries after a victorious campaign also brought him great renown. It is a totally imaginary evocation of the era, but fortunately the work is described in detail in Vibert's artistic testament, his partly autobiographic catalogue of paintings entitled, La Comédie en Peinture. ³ He relates that this rag-tag lot dressed in a variety of costumes ranging from full armor to loose cloaks, bearing a variety of weapons and plunder, including a handsome white duck, have enjoyed - a little too much - the spoils of war, with a visit to the "Golden Lion" inn at the far right.  One or two have passed out completely, others are on their way, but all are being called to account by their stern commander, "Captain Jean Truand, surnamed the Bloodthirsty, still tipsy, but straight in his saddle astride a superb Spanish jennet." Standing in front of him is the lieutenant, with muster-roll in hand who calls out the names of his band of brigands. Vibert identifies them as follows: first in line at the right - Don Alvarez of Alcantra (with the duck and harquebus); next Fra Angelo in broad brimmed black felt hat; and third seen in profile under a helmet Zamacois, the Biscayan. This is actually Vibert's friend and sometime collaborator, the short-lived Spanish painter, Eduardo Zamacois.⁴ The roll-call continues and the moment depicted is when the name Tourpendille is called, and "a hand goes up in the rank and there is heard, 'Vacancy to the left,' while a few paces away a voice shouts out, 'Tourpendille - dead drunk on the field of honor.'"
     
Clearly pleased with his accomplishment, Vibert ends his description asking, "Where do all these wandering adventurers, this assemblage of swaggerers dressed in cast-off clothing and incongruous armor come from?" He answers by describing their varied origins and weapons, and we know he kept an assortment of such props in his atelier.

The distinct significance of this painting, both in terms of its high quality and place in American collecting of Vibert, was described by Edward Strahan when it was in the famous Gibson collection of Philadelphia:

The specimen of Vibert is at the high-water-mark of his bright and glancing talent...As a painting of humors, an imprint of superficies of a situation, the thing is capital; and in the graver qualities of art, soberness of color, composition and quality, it recalls the better day of Vibert, when he had the ambition to be a painter, rather than his present epoch, when a whole laboratory of students elaborate the hard and glittering pictures which he is content to decorate with his signature "for the American Market."⁵

This catalogue note was written by Eric M. Zafran.                                     
¹ Montrosier, 1881, p. 122.
² See Gerald M. Ackerman, La Vie et l'oeuvre de Jean-Léon Gérôme, Paris, 1992, pp. 198-99, no. 66.
³ J-G. Vibert, La Comédie en Peinture, Paris, 1902, vol. I, pp. 146-49. Fortunately this text had already appeared in English in The Century Magazine in its series of Vibert articles and illustrations of 1896.
⁴ See the photo of Zamacois of ca. 1868 in Zamacois, Fortuny, Meissonier, Bilbao, 2006, p.32, fig. 16.
⁵ Strahan, 1880-82, vol. I, p. 68. The painting was one of those in American collections mentioned in Vibert's New York Times obituary, July 29, 1902, p. 9. 

This work is accompanied by its original gold leaf and burnished frame.