Gari Selchers, The Sermon, 1886, oil on canvas, 62 5/8 x 86 1/2 inches, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design, 1944
Title: The Sermon, 1886
Artist: Gari Melchers (1860-1932)
It’s Sunday morning and the local villagers are assembled dutifully in church. Their attention is directed toward the front of the room and the unseen minister who is preaching his weekly sermon. However, not everyone is listening to his words. In the foreground, closest to us, a woman slumps over, apparently enjoying an early snooze, while her neighbor, sitting upright like a ramrod in her stiff-backed chair, looks on with disapproval.
Gari Melchers was an American artist, but like many of his countrymen journeyed to Europe to study and paint. Melchers was drawn to the peasants of France and Holland, recreating scenes like this one with life-like realism and insight into the relationships between people, comic or sad, serious or uplifting.
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