A Night Class (c. 1881): Art, History and Details

A Night Class (c. 1881) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jehan-Georges Vibert (French, 1840–1902).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: A Night Class
• Date: c. 1881
• Creator attribution: Jehan-Georges Vibert (French, 1840–1902)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: 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.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1980.292

Collection credit

Bequest of Noah L. Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163–219.
• Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.
• Seney, George I. Catalogue of Mr. George I. Seney's Important Collection of Modern Paintings, To Be Sold by Auction ... on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, February 11th, 12th and 13th ... in the Assembly Room of the Madison Square Garden Building; the Paintings Will Be on Exhibition Day and Evening at the American Art Galleries ... from January 28th Until Date of Sale Inclusive; American Art Association, Managers, Thomas E. Kirby, Auctioneer. New York: [The American art galleries], 1891.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.