Jehan Georges Vibert Biography | Oil Paintings

Jehan (Jean) Georges Vibert grandfather was the famous engraver Jean-Pierre-Marie Jazet and his grandfather, Jean-Pierre Vibert was a botanist who invented new species of roses and named one the Georges Vibert rose.

Although his family had an engraving background, Jehan Georges Vibert was interested in painting and when he was sixteen years old entered the studio of Félix-Joseph Barrias and the École des Beaux-Arts. He studied at the École for six years in the class of the historic painter François-Edouard Picot.

During the Franco-Prussian War, Vibert became a sharpshooter in the army and was wounded at the battle of Malmaison in 1870. Jean Georges Vibert was awarded the Légion d’Honneur and the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in recognition of his duty. He became an Officier of the Légion d’Honneur in 1882.

Jehan Georges Vibert debuted at the 1863 Paris Salon with La Sieste (The Siesta) and Repentir. He won his first painting medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1867 and continued to submit artwork to the Salon until 1899. His works became popular in America, and were sold for high prices, he also received prominent commissions from the rich and powerful including John Jacob Astor IV and William Vanderbilt.

Jean Georges Vibert gained great popularity with prodding depictions of high clerical officials, usually Cardinals, in moments of leisure, reading, eating, even blowing cigar smoke into the face of a parrot. He pursued a successful sideline as a theater actor and wrote articles on art for Century magazine. Vibert was also a founding member of the Société des Aquarellistes (watercolor society).

The heiress May Louise Maytag (Maytag appliances) bought a large collection of works by Jehan Georges Vibert for the bishop of Miami, Coleman Carroll, who had a sense of humor and enjoyed the paintings. This large body of work was then donated to the Florida theological St. John Vianney College in Miami. The impressive collection has had a somewhat checkered conservation and exhibition history due to later bishops having a lack of a sense of humor about the paintings, which they viewed as anti-clerical.

Art Movement: Academic.
Artists Influencing Jehan Georges Vibert: Félix-Joseph Barrias, François-Edouard Picot.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist.