Jehan Georges Vibert

William H. Vanderbilt, New York (acquired directly from the artist through his agent George A. Lucas, 1880)
George Washington Vanderbilt II, New York (by descent from the above, his father)
Brigadier General Cornelius Vanderbilt, New York (by descent from the above, his uncle, and sold, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, April 18-19, 1945, lot 119)
Pekins Galleries
Collection of Vincent Fourcade (and sold, Sotheby's, New York, October 27, 1988, lot 99, illustrated)
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired in 2002

Paris and New York, Society of French Watercolorists, 1880, nos. 1, 2
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, circa 1902-1917 (as The Housetop and The Bathroom, lent by George W. Vanderbilt)

Edward Strahan, ed., The Art Treasures of America, Philadelphia, 1879, vol. II, p. 111, 114, illustrated p. 101 (a detail sketch of the upper part); in the 1977 facisimile edition, vol. II, p. 95, 105, illustrated p. 108
Collection of W. H. Vanderbilt, 640 Fifth Avenue, New York, 1884, no. 188 (as The Bath-Room and the House Top)
Jean Georges Vibert,  La Comédie en Peinture, 1902, pp. 42-3, a variation of the first and the second illustrated
George A. Lucas: An American Art Agent in Paris, 1857-1909, transcribed by Lilian M. C. Randall, Princeton, 1979, p. 491
Eric M. Zafran, Cavaliers and Cardinals, Nineteenth-Century French Ancedotal Paintings, exh. cat., Taft Museum, Cincinnati, 1992, p. 18, 29, note 162

The following condition report was kindly provided by Alvarez Fine Art Services, Inc.: The first: Overall this watercolor & gouache on paper is in good condition and shows no sign of tears, paper losses, or planar distortions. There are 2 hinge remnants on the verso top edge . Visually, this work is in good condition. Approximately 3/4" all around the recto four edges show the presence of a slight difference of tone due to matting treatment. The second: Overall this watercolor and gouache on paper is in good condition and shows no sign of tears, paper losses, or planar distortions. There are several hinge remnants on the verso top and bottom edges. The verso shows an approximately 1" wide residual of a secondary pulp support and adhesive residue at the four edges. Visually, this work is in good condition and the medium appears undisturbed. Perhaps it is possible there is a bit of fading to some of the original hues (see greens), unless it is known that this was the intention of the artist to underline the distance of viewer from the sitters.
"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."

Celebrated for his oils, Vibert was an equally accomplished watercolorist, exhibiting works on paper at the Salon as early as 1866.  In 1868, Vibert and fellow genre artists Alexandre-Louis Leloir, Jules Worms, Étienne Prosper Berne-Bellecour and Eduardo Zamacoïs organized as the Cinq du Corps Législatif to promote interest in the medium; a decade later, they officiated their collective as the Société d’Aquarellistes Français, their exhibited works stamped with gold, including the present two watercolors of 1880 (Zafran, p. 16).   With one watercolor hung atop the other, Vibert created a humorous, sly narrative depicting a team of Peeping Roofers pausing in their repairs to crowd around an opening, allowing a stealthy view of a cavernous, fabulous Woman’s Bath below. The ingenious choice of subject and display may have been influenced by the works’ commissioner, the wealthy railroad magnate and art collector William H. Vanderbilt, or his equally powerful art agent George Lucas, who recorded in his diary of March 1, 1880 that Vibert had accepted “5,500 francs” for the watercolors and was “engaged not to repeat them in any way” (George A. Lucas, p. 491).  This specific instruction alludes to the artist’s practice of painting more than one version of the same subject for his American patrons, who also included John Jacob Astor, James H. Stebbins and Catherine Lorillard Wolfe (the latter two collectors each had a watercolor of The First Born with Wolfe’s now held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art) (Zafran, p. 98).

After traveling to New York for a second exhibition in 1880, the present works entered Vanderbilt’s permanent collection, joining Vibert's equally amusing The Committee on Moral Books (sold in these rooms, May 9, 2013, lot 37). 

Beyond Vibert’s playful narrative, the compositions' mix of Orientalist and Asian elements reflected the contemporary vogue for all things exotic. The woman’s bath is an amalgam of Western and Eastern architecture and decorative objects, a design scheme similar to Vanderbilt’s New York mansion at 640 Fifth Avenue, with its Renaissance-inspired dining room, Japanese parlor, and Turkish rugs covering almost every floor, and Vibert’s Paris home on the Rue de Boulogne, which a visiting journalist noted had Pompeian entrance walls while “India panelings are on the landing-places… [the] bedroom is Japanese… [and] he has enclosed all his garden and made a sort of Japanese court and salon”  (Anne Hampton Brewster as quoted in Clare E. Clement and Lawrence Hutton, Artists of the Nineteenth Century and their Works, Boston, 1879, p. 323 and Zafran, p. 17).  The swimming and lounging ladies wear contemporary fashion, including bathing costumes, as well as an assorted hue of silk, embroidered kimonos complimented by geta (traditional Japanese sandals) or Moroccan slippers. Viewing the work in Vanderbilt’s home, Edward Strahan thought the women were “splashing about or taking refreshments, in a luxuriously decorated hummums fit for the Arabian Nights” (Strahan, p. 105).  Such a remark alludes to the urban public baths of London or Paris; since the mid-nineteenth century, women could enjoy an afternoon of leisure at the Hôtel Lambert or in the Turkish inspired seclusion of the Bain d ’Odessa.  Yet the cityscape beyond the roofers is not recognizable as a European city, the white walls of the buildings closer to Algeria where Vibert travelled circa 1870.  The mix of foreign and domestic elements adds an additional allure to the narrative while avoiding too scandalous a context (while being spied the women are covered unlike the “foreign” bathing nudes of Orientalist compositions by artists like Jean-Léon Gérôme).  The gentle tease is further implied by the artist’s inscription included on the original frame’s plaque, later published in the artist’s La Comedie en peinture of 1902.  Here Vibert suggests he had no choice but to paint the “secret” space the roofers discovered, implying his brilliant and innovative handling of watercolor -- the safest way to record the “furtive moment.”