Vibert is best known for his satirical scenes from ecclesiastical life. Here he draws a contrast between the inspired and modest missionary and the prelates in the midst of their comforts. The cardinals lounging on the sofa and purple-robed bishop savoring his tea are indifferent to the monk's account of his mission and to the wound he received carrying it out. Ribera's terrifying Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew (Museo del Prado, Madrid), on the wall in this luxurious interior, adds a harsh note of irony to the scene below it.
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Title:The Missionary's Adventures
Artist:Jean-Georges Vibert (French, Paris 1840–1902 Paris)
Date:ca. 1883
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:39 x 53 in. (99.1 x 134.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900
Object Number:25.110.140
Inscription: Signed (lower left): J.G.Vibert.
[Goupil & Cie, Paris, 1883; stock no. 16773, as "Le récit du missionaire"; purchased on August 31, for Fr 40,000, from the artist; sold on October 25, for Fr 50,000, to Knoedler]; [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1883–84; stock no. 4580, sold on March 3, 1884, for $18,500, to Morgan]; Mary J. Morgan, New York (1884–d. 1885; her estate sale, American Art Association, New York, March 5, 1886, no. 231, as "The Missionary's Story," for $25,500, to Huntington); Collis P. Huntington, New York (1886–d. 1900; bequest to The Met with life interest to his widow, Arabella D. Huntington, later [from 1913] Mrs. Henry E. Huntington, 1900–d. 1924; life interest to their son, Archer Milton Huntington, 1924–terminated in 1925)
Paris. Palais des Champs-Élysées. "Exposition Nationale de 1883," September 15–October 31, 1883, no. 686 (as "Le Récit du Missionnaire," lent by M. Knoedler).
New York. Union League Club. "Exhibition of Oil Paintings at the Annual Meeting," January 13–15, 1887 [see Critic 1887].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic," October 30, 1973–January 6, 1974, no. 13.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
New York. Dahesh Museum of Art. "Telling Tales II: Religious Images in 19th-Century Academic Art," October 16, 2001–January 26, 2002, unnumbered cat. (fig. 28).
Paul Lefort. "L'Exposition nationale de 1883 (2e article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 28 (November 1883), p. 400, mentions it among "quelques petites toiles dont les sujets sont toujours assurés d'attirer la foule".
Theodore Child. "The Exposition Nationale at Paris. Second Notice." Art Amateur 10 (December 1883), p. 9.
"The Morgan Collection of Paintings." Art Amateur 13 (October 1885), p. 90.
"The Mary J. Morgan Collection. (First Notice)." Critic (February 20, 1886), p. 95, calls it "a marvel of sarcastic insight".
"The Morgan Collection. (Second Notice)." Critic (February 27, 1886), p. 108, comments that although its execution is merely "competent," it cannot be surpassed in its "delightful story-telling".
"The Art Sale Finished: Sharp Bidding for the Morgan Collection." New York Times (March 6, 1886), p. 5, describes the bidding war between Huntington and Samuel P. Avery for this picture; comments that the winning bid of $25,500, an unprecedented price for a Vibert, was "simply absurd".
Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer. "Fine Arts: The Morgan Collections. II." Independent 38 (March 11, 1886), p. 8.
"The Fine Arts: Sale of the Morgan Paintings." Critic (March 13, 1886), p. 133.
Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer. "Fine Arts: Timely Notes." Independent 38 (March 25, 1886), p. 7, comments that the amount paid for this picture at the Morgan sale "shows not so much that the bidders were willing to pay largely for the best possible things, as that they were willing to pay anything for the particular things they chanced at the moment to want," calling it proof "rather of mere extravagance than of true artistic enthusiasm".
"The Sale of the Morgan Pictures." Art Amateur 14 (April 1886), pp. 98–99, states that Morgan purchased it from Knoedler for $12,500 [sic?].
M[ariana]. G[riswold]. van Rensselaer. "Pictures of the Season in New York. III." American Architect and Building News 19 (April 10, 1886), p. 173.
"The Fine Arts: Art Notes." Critic (January 22, 1887), p. 47, notes that it was recently shown in a three-day exhibition at the Union League Club in connection with their annual meeting [Exh. New York 1887].
"Vibert at Home." New York Times (January 24, 1887), p. 2.
Clarence Cook. Art and Artists of Our Time. New York, 1888, vol. 1, pp. 194–95, as "The Missionary's Story"; identifies Ribera's painting of the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew (Museo del Prado, Madrid) hanging above the cardinals' heads.
J. E. Reed et al. One Hundred Crowned Masterpieces of Modern Painting: Being a Collection of Photogravures, From the Most Celebrated Works of Contemporary Artists of All Nations. Philadelphia, 1888, vol. 2, unpaginated, pl. 45 (photogravure), as "The Missionary's Story".
"Some Former Picture Auctions." Art Amateur 24 (March 1891), p. 6.
Lina Beard. "Art—What it Is Doing for Us." Chautauquan 15 (June 1892), p. 350.
J[ean-]. G[eorges]. Vibert. "The Missionary's Story." Century Magazine 51 (November 1895), pp. 82–83, ill., calls it "The Missionary's Story" and identifies the paintings within the painting as a portrait of Cardinal Richelieu and the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew; describes the cardinals as either uninterested in the missionary's story of his wounds or desirous of sending him back, adding "it is enough to have the consciousness of being his superior to make it seem quite natural to send him to his death".
"The Huntington Pictures: No Accurate Estimate of Their Value Yet Formed." New York Times (August 26, 1900), p. 12, as "The Missionary Story".
Frederick W. Morton. "An Appreciation of Jehan Georges Vibert." Brush and Pencil 10 (September 1902), pp. 327–28, ill. p. 323, as "The Missionary's Story"; calls it "a scathing denunciation of the heads of the church".
Jehan-Georges Vibert. La Comédie en peinture. Paris, 1902, vol. 1, pp. 102–4, ill. [French translation of Ref. Vibert 1895].
"Vibert, the Artist, Dead." New York Times (July 29, 1902), p. 9.
D[aniel]. Cady Eaton. A Handbook of Modern French Painting. New York, 1909, p. 306, calls it "Le Récit du Missionaire" and mistakenly believes that it was sold in New York for $47,000.
Oscar Lewis. The Big Four: The Story of Huntington, Stanford, Hopkins, and Crocker, and of the Building of the Central Pacific. New York, 1938, pp. 232–33, quotes Huntington's description of this painting, which concludes "'I lose the picture in the story when I look at it. I sometimes sit half an hour looking at that picture'"; suggests that Huntington imagined himself to be like the missionary and his associates, Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker, like the pleasure-seeking cardinals surrounding him.
S[amuel]. N[athaniel]. Behrman. Duveen. New York, 1952, pp. 195–96.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 100.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, pp. 197–98, ill., identify the paintings within the painting as Ribera's "Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew" (Museo del Prado, Madrid) and Philippe de Champaigne's portraits of Cardinal Richelieu (Musée du Louvre, Paris and National Gallery, London); note that at the end of the nineteenth century, Vibert was among those artists whose works sold for the highest prices.
Charles S. Moffett. Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1973, unpaginated, no. 13, remarks that "this kind of beautifully rendered dramatic realism is today the province of the motion picture industry".
Carl R. Baldwin. The Impressionist Epoch. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1974, p. 23, notes that it is the foreign, not French, clergy that is the object of the artist's scorn in this picture.
James Woodress. "The Genesis of the Prologue of 'Death Comes for the Archbishop'." American Literature 50 (November 1978), pp. 473–78, discusses how this picture inspired the prologue for Willa Cather's novel "Death Comes for the Archbishop," published in 1927; notes that Cather saw the painting at the MMA in 1925.
Thomas E. Norton. 100 Years of Collecting in America: The Story of Sotheby Parke Bernet. New York, 1984, p. 25, ill., dates it about 1883 and notes that Morgan purchased it from Knoedler for $12,500 [sic?]; quotes from Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" in which a character praises Vibert's study for this picture, calling the study "a perfect little poem of subtlety, and even profundity".
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, p. 45.
Eric M. Zafran. Cavaliers and Cardinals: Nineteenth-Century French Anecdotal Paintings. Exh. cat., Taft Museum. Cincinnati, 1992, pp. 18–20, fig. 22, calls it "The Missionary's Tale" and dates it 1883; suggests that a smaller version of this picture was shown in the Exposition Nationale [Exh. Paris 1883; the dimensions in the Exposition catalogue are closer to the MMA painting]; notes that it was Huntington's favorite picture.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 470, ill.
Lisa Small. Telling Tales II: Religious Images in 19th-Century Academic Art. Exh. cat., Dahesh Museum of Art. New York, 2001, p. 33, fig. 28 (color), dates it 1883; interprets the depicted paintings of Cardinal Richelieu and Saint Bartholomew as underscoring "the opposition of worldly and spiritual concerns within the church".
Grace Glueck. "Art in Review: 'Telling Tales II'." New York Times (December 28, 2001), p. E44.
Mitchell A. Codding in Gary Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. New York, 2003, p. 309, fig. 11.4 (color), dates it 1883.
Leanne M. Zalewski. The New York Market for French Art in the Gilded Age, 1867–1893. New York, 2023, pp. x, 38, 54, 77, 98, 105, 129, fig. 3.4.
A study for this painting was sold by Goupil & Cie, Paris on January 10, 1884, to Masc Millan (stock no. 16776; present location unknown).
Jean-Georges Vibert (French, Paris 1840–1902 Paris)
n.d.
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