The Organ Rehearsal

Lerolle 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, Lerolle 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 married to Chausson, who plays the organ. Lerolle appears at the left, facing outward. The picture was a triumph. Shortly before banker and philanthropist George I. Seney (1826-1893) presented it as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum in 1887, a critic wrote, "thousands will remember The Organ Rehearsal…spectators often spoke low before it, as if waiting for the organ to play and the voice of the singer to be heard".