Evening (c. 1879): Art, History and Details

Evening (c. 1879) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albert-Charles Lebourg (French, 1849–1928).

The work and its context

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

In this drawing, Albert Lebourg depicted his mother, sister, and wife sewing by the dim light of an oil lamp. The three women sit around a table, close to one another but each absorbed in their work. Known for his experimentation with charcoal, Lebourg worked from dark to light, covering his sheet with the dark, powdery material and leaving only highlights visible.

Object facts

• Title: Evening
• Date: c. 1879
• Creator attribution: Albert-Charles Lebourg (French, 1849–1928)
• Culture: France
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: conté crayon and charcoal with stumping and white gouache on laid paper discolored to brown
• Dimensions: Image: 31.8 x 48.5 cm (12 1/2 x 19 1/8 in.); Sheet: 31.8 x 48.5 cm (12 1/2 x 19 1/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2021.101

A detail from the museum

This drawing influenced a young Georges Seurat, who likely saw it on view at the 1879 Impressionist Exhibition and created his own interpretation of the subject in dark conté crayon soon after.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue des tableaux, pastels, dessins, aquarelles [. . .] faisant partie de la collection Roger Marx. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1914.
• Bénédite, Léonce. Albert Lebourg. Paris: Éditions des Galeries Georges Petit, 1918.
• Geffroy, Gustave. Exposition Albert Lebourg: Tableaux, aquarelles et dessins. Exh. cat. Paris: Galeries Georges Petit, 1918.

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.