English: Gallery Label:

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, he 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 was married to Chausson, who plays the organ. Lerolle appears at left, facing outward.

This monumental composition, which bears comparison to other contemporary scenes of modern life, such as Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884–86, The Art Institute of Chicago), was exhibited at the Salon of 1885. The following year, it debuted in New York, in the first major Impressionism exhibition held in America. The picture was a triumph: shortly before it was presented as a gift to the Museum by the banker and philanthropist George I. Seney (1826–1893) 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."