Jehan Georges Vibert

The artist's estate, sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 25-26, 1902, lot 50
Mr. Kipling (acquired at the above sale)
Private Collector, Los Angeles (and sold: Christie's, New York, October 29, 1986, lot 233, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1900, no. 1877
Cincinnati, Taft Museum; Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art; Elmira, New York, Arnot Art Museum, Cavaliers and Cardinals, Nineteenth Century French Ancedotal Paintings, June 25, 1992-January 17, 1993, no. 122 (Washington, D.C. and New York only)

Exposition Internationale Universelle de 1900, Catalogue général officiel, Paris, 1900, p. 127
Jean-Georges Vibert, La comédie en peinture, Paris, vol. I, p. 136-8, illustrated p. 136

The watercolor is encased with mat and backing held together with archival tape and has not been examined out of this structure. but it does not appear to have been laid down. At all four corners there are pencil marks possibly added by a later hand.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

For Vibert, art was  inseparable from science: innovations in chemistry allowed for new pigments, brighter colors, and methods for preservation. In 1892 the eigth edition of the artist’s extensive study of The Science of Painting was published, with two chapters devoted to “Water Body-Colours” and “Watercolours,” which he considered “a very complex style of painting,” as proven by his extensive instructions on proper paper, pigments, and fixatives. As the art critic Edward Villars reported, Vibert intended this process to render “water-color imperishable and unchangeable… [though] we shall have to wait a century or so to see whether M. Vibert can really guarantee immortality of not” (as quoted in Eric Zafran, Cavaliers and Cardinals, exh. cat., p. 98).  The incredibly fresh, saturated colors of Le retour des Reliques proves Vibert’s theories were scientifically sound, and connect the present-day viewer with the artist’s brilliant imagination. As with many of Vibert’s subjects, the narrative context of Le retour des Reliques is revealed with a close reading of the artist’s Comédie en peinture.  There, Vibert recounts the tale of a Breton fisherman who  stumbled across a group of white-robed, ghostlike friars joined by an Italian cardinal in red, all of them led in prayer by the booming voice of their bishop as  a team of monks carried onto shore a reliquary glinting in the early morning light. The relics were engraved with the admonition “It is a sacrilege to hide me from the light as long as I am in France,”  and the return was an elaborate and covert operation. As such, the old fisherman had kept his story a secret since his youth, leaving it to Vibert to record with bold detail, each clergyman’s face a distinct portrait, the expressions and postures signifying the solemnity of the scene, while the tall masts of a ship in the distance and the open crate on the skiff at shore point to the mission. While many of the artist’s ecclesiastical subjects are comical,  the present work is one of the few with a reverent context.  French relics had been stolen, hidden, and returned since medieval times, and while the exact episode Vibert depicts may not be historical it clearly communicates the power of faith. Interestingly, Le retour des Reliques was kept in the artist’s personal collection, only sold as part of his estate, suggesting its subject had particular resonance for Vibert. Indeed, in its subject and technique Le retour des Reliques points to Vibert as a man as much of faith as of art and science.