The First Babe
Medium
Watercolor
Dimensions
Overall: 14 1/8 x 17 1/2 in. (35.9 x 44.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887
Accession Number
87.15.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jean-Georges Vibert’s 1872 watercolor “The First Babe offers a charming glimpse into nineteenth-century domestic interior. The scene centers on a newborn infant surrounded by attentive adults, with a cozy arrangement of couches, chairs, and a glowing fireplace suggesting a moment of quiet celebration. Rendered in the medium of watercolor, the work allows Vibert to achieve luminous color and precise detail, capturing the textures of fabric, wood, and flickering firelight with remarkable delicacy. As a drawing classified within the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, the pi...