Henry Lerolle - The Organ Rehearsal [c.1885]

Henry Lerolle - The Organ Rehearsal [c.1885], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Lerolle (French, Paris, 1848 - Paris, 1929) belonged to a dynamic circle of French intellectuals at the turn of the last century. Along with his brother-in-law, the composer Ernest Chausson, he collected works by Bonnard, Degas, Denis, Renoir, Vuillard, and other contemporaries. 

The Organ Rehearsal is Lerolle's most important painting. Set in the choir loft of the church of Saint-François-Xavier in Paris, the figures are members of the artist’s family and close friends. Lerolle's wife, shown with sheet music on her lap, sits between her two sisters: one is the singer; the other was married to Chausson, who plays the organ. Lerolle appears at left, facing outward. 

This monumental composition was exhibited at the Salon of 1885. The following year, it debuted in New York, in the first major Impressionism exhibition held in America. The picture was a triumph.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 236.9 x 362.6 cm]