FreeThe Grasshopper and the Ant
Jehan-Georges Vibert (French, 1840–1902)
Title
The Grasshopper and the Ant
Artist
Jehan-Georges Vibert (French, 1840–1902)
Date
1875
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
24 1/2 × 33 1/2 in. (62.2 × 85.1 cm)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Bequest of Francis T. B. Martin
Object Number
1995.44
On View
Not on view
Count Camondo, 1875–1880 [1];
Purchased from Count Camondo by Goupil, Paris, stock book 10, no. 14511, May 15, 1880;
Purchased from Goupil, Paris, by Knoedler’s, New York, stock book 3, no. 2756, May 15, 1880–February 8, 1882 [2];
Purchased from Knoedler’s, New York, by George I. Seney (1826–1893), New York, February 8, 1882–April 2, 1885;
Sold at his sale, American Art Galleries, New York, April 2, 1885, lot 259, as The Cricket and the Ant, 1885.
McEvers Bayard Brown (1852–1926), Essex County, England, by 1926.
Sold at Old & Modern Paintings of the American and European Schools from the collections of Nicholas Acquavella, Mrs. George B. Hurd, Ross H. Maynard, Simon J. Schwartz, Mrs. William F. Sheehan and from the estates of the late Charles English, Philip C. Krauthoff and McEvers B. Brown, Anderson Galleries, New York, November 24, 1926, lot 159, as The Cricket and the Ant.
Purchased from Newhouse Galleries, New York, November 11, 1927 by Charles W. Martin (1863–1944), Omaha, Nebraska, 1927–January 1, 1939;
His gift to his nephew Francis T. B. Martin (1904–1995), Omaha, Nebraska, January 1, 1939–1995;
Bequest of Francis T. B. Martin to Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, 1995.
[1] Identified as belonging to “comte de Comondo” in Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure, et lithographie des artistes vivants (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1875), 284. This possibly refers to Abraham Behor de Camondo (1810–1889) or his brother Nissim de Camondo (1830–1889), both bankers from the Camondo family who resided in Paris.
[2] Goupil’s stock book records the purchase date as May 15, 1880, but Knoedler’s stock book records the work’s entry date as August 18, 1880.
Exposition universelle, Paris, 1878.
Jean du Vistre, “Nos Gravures,” L’Illustration, May 29, 1875, 349, 355, (repro.).
Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure, et lithographie des artistes vivants (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1875), 284.
Gabriel Laffaille, Le Salon de 1875 (Paris: La Revue Illustrée des lettres, sciences, arts et industries, 1875), 15.
P. de la Flécherye, Le Salon de 1875 (Paris: Balitout Questroy, 1875), 124.
J. B. F. W., “Jehan Georges Vibert,” The Aldine, 9: 6, 1878, 182.
“French Genre Painters: The Few Works They Exhibit at the Fair,” The New York Times, July 14, 1878, 10.
Edward Strahan [Earl Shinn], The Chefs-DŒuvre d’art of the International Exhibition, 1878 (Philadelphia: Gebbie & Barrie, 1878), 128–129, (repro.).
Clara Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton, Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works: A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches, vol. 2 (Boston: Houghton Osgood, 1879), 322.
Gustave Vapereau, Dictionnaire universel des contemporains: contenant toutes les personnes notables de la France et des pays étrangers (Paris: L. Hachette, 1880), 1810.
Jean Clément Léonce Dubosc de Pesquidoux, L’art dans les deux mondes: peinture et sculpture (1878), vol. 1 (Paris: E. Plon, 1881), 140–141.
Eugène Montrosier, Les Artistes Modernes, vol. 1, Les Peintres de Genre (Paris: H. Launette, 1881), 123.
John Denison Champlin, Jr. and Charles C. Perkins, eds., Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, vol. 4 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887), 364.
Clarence Cook, Art and Artists of Our Time, vol. 1 (New York: Selmar Hess, 1888), 194, (repro.).
Anton Seidl, Fanny Morris Smith, H. E. Krehbiel, and W. S. Howard, eds., The Music of the Modern World, vol. 2 (New York: D. Appleton, 1895), 113.
Jehan-Georges Vibert, “The Grasshopper and the Ant,” The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine 51 (November 1895–April 1896): 260–261 (repro.).
Jehan-Georges Vibert, La Comédie en Peinture, vol. 1 (Paris: Arthur Tooth and Sons, 1902), 237–239, (repro.).
American Art Annual 24 (1927): 427.
Jan M. Ziolkowski, The Juggler of Notre Dame and the Medievalizing of Modernity, vol. 2, Medieval Meets Medievalism (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018), 183, (repro.).
Taylor J. Acosta, European Paintings and Sculpture from Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha: Joslyn Art Museum, 2020), 182–183 (repro.).