A technical study of Henry Lerolle's "Organ rehearsel"

In 2006 the expansion of the 19th-century European paintings galleries at the Metropolitan Museum afforded the opportunity to display Henry Lerolle's "Organ rehearsal" for the first time in roughly 70 years. Lerolle was born in 1848 to a devout Catholic family living in Paris, where his father and uncle operated a bronze sculpture foundry. "The organ rehearsal" depicts a young woman singing, her voice filling the empty space of a church. The singer and nearly all the figures behind her seem to have been members of the artist's family, and Lerolle himself stands second from the left. [Abridged Publication Abstract]