id: 148970 accession number: 1977.127 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.127 updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:40.653000 Singers, 1863–1868. Théodule Ribot (French, 1823–1891). Oil on fabric; framed: 88.9 x 75.6 x 6.8 cm (35 x 29 3/4 x 2 11/16 in.); unframed: 74 x 60.3 cm (29 1/8 x 23 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin 1977.127 title: Singers title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1863–1868 creation date earliest: 1863 creation date latest: 1868 current location: creditline: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Théodule Ribot (French, 1823–1891) - artist Théodule Ribot first tried to study art at the trade school in Châlons, École des Arts et Métiers. When his father died in 1840, Ribot had to help support his family. He worked as a bookkeeper in Rouen, married early, and left for Paris in 1845. There he did various jobs, studied in the atelier of Auguste-Barthélémy Glaize (1807-1893), and, in 1848, went to Algeria to work as a foreman for three years. Back in Paris, he befriended the painter Bonvin (q.v.), who held an exhibition of pictures by his friends in his studio in 1859. These artists, including Fantin-Latour (q.v.), Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), Antoine Vollon (1833-1900), and J. A. M. Whistler (1834-1903), depicted ordinary subjects from their immediate environments without relying on narrative, and they generally used somber colors, limited illumination, and broader brushwork that contrasted with academic standards and methods. Their work elicited a positive response from Courbet (q.v.), considered the father of realism in France. Ribot first exhibited at a Paris Salon in 1861, when his kitchen scenes won generally favorable reviews. To underscore a humble life-style for the artist, his early biographers claim that the dark, inky backgrounds of his pictures were the result of Ribot's painting by lamplight in his free evenings at home. He continued to depict working-class and peasant subjects in a style variously described as Dutch or Spanish by critics, and he participated in the Salons and provincial and international art exhibitions. Always interested in expanding exhibition opportunities for independent painters like himself, he signed a petition in 1863 that decried the Salon jury's numerous rejections that year and contributed to the official decision to hold the Salon des Refusés. Ribot sold his pictures through art galleries in Paris, such as those of Louis Martinet, Alfred Cadart, and Bernheim Jeune, and the French state bought his St. Sebastian (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) in 1865. In 1878 he was named to the Legion of Honor. The following year a serious illness kept Ribot from painting for two years, and his production fell off after this period. In 1884 his fellow artists, including Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884), Boudin (q.v.), Fantin-Latour, Monet (q.v.), Puvis de Chavannes (q.v.), and Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), held a banquet in his honor and gave him a medal inscribed "To Théodule Ribot, the independent painter." It is ironic, then, that the year after his death a major retrospective exhibition was organized at the official art school, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. --- measurements: Framed: 88.9 x 75.6 x 6.8 cm (35 x 29 3/4 x 2 11/16 in.); Unframed: 74 x 60.3 cm (29 1/8 x 23 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: t. Ribot translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1977 opening date: 1977-12-28T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). title: The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900 opening date: 1980-11-12T05:00:00 The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 12, 1980-January 18, 1981). title: Lutes, Lovers, and Lyres: Musical Imagery in the Collection opening date: 1989-02-14T05:00:00 Lutes, Lovers, and Lyres: Musical Imagery in the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 14-June 11, 1989). title: Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art opening date: 2012-09-26T00:00:00 Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Snite Museum, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (organizer) (September 2-December 2, 2012). title: Théodule Ribot (1823-1891): A Delightful Darkness opening date: 2021-10-16T04:00:00 Théodule Ribot (1823-1891): A Delightful Darkness. Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France (October 16, 2021-January 2, 2022) https://www.augustins.org/en/exhibition-theodule-ribot; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille, Marseille, France (February 10-May 15, 2022); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen, France (organizer) (June 11-October 2, 2022) https://mba.caen.fr/exposition/theodule-ribot. --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Bordeaux, La Société des Amis des Arts de Bordeaux. (1865), no. 450.', 'opening_date': None} * {'description': 'Paris, Galerie Bernheim Jeune. Exposition T. Ribot (1890), no. 226, Le concert, 72 x 60 cm, signé dans le coin et à droite (cma painting is signed lower left, but the extensive description otherwise fits perfectly).', 'opening_date': None} * {'description': 'Probably Paris, Palais National de l\'École des Beaux-Arts. Exposition Th. Ribot (1892), no. 26, Une répétition, 73 x 60 cm, appartient à M. de H. (stamp with initials "PH" on reverse could refer to this owner).', 'opening_date': None} * {'description': 'Possibly Paris, Galerie Bernheim Jeune. Exposition Ribot (1911), no. 19, Les chanteurs.', 'opening_date': '1911-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA; Brooklyn Museum; Saint Louis Art Museum; Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830-1900 (1980-82), 50, no. 12 (repr.). Text by Gabriel P. Weisberg.', 'opening_date': '1900-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN (8/26/2012 - 11/15/2012): "Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art", ex. cat. no. 66, p. 192-193.', 'opening_date': '2012-08-26T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE (Probably Bernheim-Jeune, Paris) date: 1890 footnotes: *
The 1892 Exposition T. Ribot, held at Bernheim-Jeune, includes a painting entitled “Le Concert” (no. 226), whose lengthy, detailed description matches that of the Cleveland picture perfectly.  The given dimensions are 72 x 60 cm, just one centimeter off in height from Singers.  The catalogue description says that the signature is in the lower right, while the Cleveland painting is signed in the lower left; this is most likely an error, as it seems almost certain that the exhibited work and the Cleveland picture are one and the same given the precise description and dimensions.  
citations: (Possibly Monsieur de H.) date: By 1892 footnotes: *
A Ribot painting at the Palais National de l’École des Beaux-Arts entitled “Une Répétition” (no. 26) matches the dimensions of Singers exactly.  “M. de H.” is the listed owner and may refer to the same collector indicated on the painting’s stretcher by a stamp that reads “PH.”  
citations: Frederick R. Sears, Jr. [1855-1939], Boston date: By 1895 footnotes: *
A typewritten label on the back of the stretcher reads, “From the collection of Frederick R. Sears," referring not to Frederick R. Sears, a noted art collector, but to his son, Frederick R. Sears, Jr.  Sears, Jr. lent the Ribot to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from July 11, 1894 until October 11, 1895.  The painting ("Bohemian Singers") is listed in the 1895 Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings with a Summary of other Works of Art.  While some publications place Sears directly before Norton Gallery in the provenance, given that he certainly owned the painting in 1894-1895, it seems that he should in fact precede Bernheim-Jeune’s 1925 purchase of the painting.  
citations: (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris) date: 1925 footnotes: *
Bernheim-Jeune purchased this painting (stock no. 5982/BJ; label visible on stretcher) in November 1925.  The date of sale was illegible in the firm’s stock book, which contained no additional information concerning the circumstances of the painting’s acquisition, sale, or earlier provenance. 
citations: Norton Gallery, New York date: ? footnotes: citations: Noah L. [1918-1980] and Muriel S. Butkin [1915-1908], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: Until 1977 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1977- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS MM. Bernheim Jeune & cie (Paris, France). Exposition T. Ribot: catalogue raisonné page number: url: Exposition Th. Ribot au Palais National de l'École des Beaux-Arts. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1991. page number: url: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings, with a Summary of Other Works of Art Exhibited on the Second Floor, Summer, 1895. Boston: A. Mudge & Son, printers, 1895. page number: url: d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: url: Catherine O'Reilly, email to Victoria Reed, Dec. 29, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Guy-Patrice Dauberville, letter to Victoria Sears Goldman, July 28, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: url: Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 544-546, Vol. II, no. 191 url: Georget, Luc. "Sous le Scalpel de Ribot." In Théodule Ribot, 1823-1891: Une Délicieuse Obscurité. Emmanuelle Delapierre, Luc Georget, Gabriel Weisberg, eds., 118-181. Paris: LienArt, 2021. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 148-149, no. 46 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.127/1977.127_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.127/1977.127_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.127/1977.127_full.tif