Listen to the Minister!
Modern day church services and sermons would certainly be different if not for theologian and Protestant reformer John Calvin, born on this day in 1509. The Dutch church congregation depicted in this painting reacts variously to an unseen pastor's sermon. In a pew against the wall two men listen intently, while the parishioners below them seem to daydream. One bows her head in pious slumber as her neighbor watches reproachfully.
Artist Gari Melchers delighted in presenting a vivid slice of ordinary life, both psychological and material. He painted the motto "True and Clear" above his studio door in the Dutch fishing village of Egmond. Critics frequently alluded to his skill, calling The Sermon "the last word of realism in painting."
This painting—and fifty-nine others—can be seen in our traveling exhibition The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum showing now through August 27, 2000 at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Source: Richard Murray. The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured: Gari Melchers, 1860–1932, The Sermon, 1886, oil, 62 5/8 x 86 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design.