Jean-Georges Vibert

Jean-Georges Vibert had considerable success during the last quarter of the nineteenth-century poking gentle fun at complacent or idiosyncratic leaders of the Catholic Church and at social pretense in all its guises. His skillfully drawn and beautifully colored set pieces -- cardinals dining on extraordinary dishes, bishops surveying the damage wrought by pampered pets, or exquisitely dressed young matrons vying for the attention of a prestigious guest -- display knowing appreciation of fashionable detail as well as a very personalized taste for strong and unusual color.

Vibert's 'cardinals and cavaliers' (as such costume pictures were often described) were sought out by a cosmopolitan and wealthy clientele; but Vibert's taste for color and for human activity also drew him to more realistic scenes and to subjects of a more common cast.  La Corrida is one of several Vibert compositions that study audiences at bull fights or or theatrical events, motifs that were also eagerly investigated by his more avant garde contemporaries such as Manet and Degas.  Framing his scene so closely -- the arena door abuts directly on the viewer's space -- and steeply foreshortening the viewing stands provided Vibert with a visual metaphor for the stress and strain of the tightly packed stadium.  The densely stacked spectators along the righthand edge are cleverly exploited by Vibert to strike social contrasts and to play pictorial games, as with the arc of unfurled fans. In a charming touch, the toreadors and picadors who are normally the stars of such a show have been reduced to mere bundles of hats and implements, left casually on either side of the broad wooden door.