A Night Class c. 1881

Jehan Georges Vibert likely painted this scene with oil on canvas. Looking at the painting, you can see the students' faces lit up by the limelight, a relatively new technology at the time, which depended on careful calibration to maintain its brilliant glow. This new technology illuminates the social dynamics of the painting, where we see students from different social classes gather together to learn. Vibert was primarily a figure painter, interested in the textures of human experience as conveyed by the material qualities of clothing, skin, and other surfaces. He paid close attention to the appearance of things, and in this way, he was very much a painter of his time. Vibert also emphasizes the importance of context in understanding the full meaning of an artwork, challenging traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.