{"data": {"name": "Th\u00e9odule Ribot", "nationality": "French", "description": "Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891)", "biography": "Th\u00e9odule Ribot first tried to study art at the trade school in Ch\u00e2lons, \u00c9cole des Arts et M\u00e9tiers. 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-Barth\u00e9l\u00e9my 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 Refus\u00e9s. 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 (Mus\u00e9e 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 Th\u00e9odule 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 \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.", "birth_year": "1823", "death_year": "1891", "id": 1582, "artworks": [{"id": 103899, "accession_number": "1921.992", "title": "La Carte", "tombstone": "La Carte, 1860\u201375. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Etching. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Ralph King, 1921.992", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1921.992"}, {"id": 103900, "accession_number": "1921.993", "title": "Le d\u00e9jeuner du chat", "tombstone": "Le d\u00e9jeuner du chat, 1867. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Etching. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Ralph King, 1921.993", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1921.993"}, {"id": 147521, "accession_number": "1973.31", "title": "The Little Milkmaid", "tombstone": "The Little Milkmaid, c. 1865. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Oil on fabric; unframed: 46.3 x 38.3 cm (18 1/4 x 15 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 1973.31", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.31"}, {"id": 148970, "accession_number": "1977.127", "title": "Singers", "tombstone": "Singers, 1863\u20131868. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). 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", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.127"}, {"id": 150077, "accession_number": "1980.282", "title": "Lazarillo de Tormes and His Blind Master", "tombstone": "Lazarillo de Tormes and His Blind Master, before 1880. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Oil on fabric; framed: 108 x 90 x 7 cm (42 1/2 x 35 7/16 x 2 3/4 in.); unframed: 91.5 x 73.7 cm (36 x 29 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Noah L. Butkin, 1980.282", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.282"}, {"id": 166355, "accession_number": "2008.192", "title": "The Potato Peelers", "tombstone": "The Potato Peelers, 1863. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891), A. Cadart & F. Chevalier, rue Richelieu, 66. Etching on chine coll\u00e9; sheet: 43.5 x 29.3 cm (17 1/8 x 11 9/16 in.); platemark: 31.8 x 24 cm (12 1/2 x 9 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of John Bonebrake, 2008.192", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.192"}, {"id": 166873, "accession_number": "2009.120", "title": "Study of Hands (recto); Study of a Woman's Hand (verso)", "tombstone": "Study of Hands (recto); Study of a Woman's Hand (verso), 1800s. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Black chalk and graphite (recto); sheet: 23.6 x 30.8 cm (9 5/16 x 12 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2009.120", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2009.120"}, {"id": 166874, "accession_number": "2009.120.a", "title": "Study of Hands (recto)", "tombstone": "Study of Hands (recto), 1800s. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Black chalk and graphite (recto); sheet: 23.6 x 30.8 cm (9 5/16 x 12 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2009.120.a", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2009.120.a"}, {"id": 166875, "accession_number": "2009.120.b", "title": "Study of a Woman's Hand (verso)", "tombstone": "Study of a Woman's Hand (verso), 1800s. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Graphite; sheet: 23.6 x 30.8 cm (9 5/16 x 12 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2009.120.b", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2009.120.b"}, {"id": 168556, "accession_number": "2010.285", "title": "Cats (recto); Sketch of Two Figures Embracing (verso)", "tombstone": "Cats (recto); Sketch of Two Figures Embracing (verso), 1838\u201391. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Pen and black ink and brush and black wash on paper; sheet: 23.5 x 17.1 cm (9 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2010.285", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.285"}, {"id": 168557, "accession_number": "2010.285.a", "title": "Cats (recto)", "tombstone": "Cats (recto), 1838\u201391. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Black ink applied with pen (reed) and brush ; sheet: 23.5 x 17.1 cm (9 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2010.285.a", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.285.a"}, {"id": 168558, "accession_number": "2010.285.b", "title": "Sketch of Two Figures Embracing (verso)", "tombstone": "Sketch of Two Figures Embracing (verso), 1838\u201391. Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Graphite; sheet: 23.5 x 17.1 cm (9 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2010.285.b", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.285.b"}, {"id": 168562, "accession_number": "2010.289", "title": "Four Girls Studying a Drawing", "tombstone": "Four Girls Studying a Drawing, 1876 . Th\u00e9odule Ribot (French, 1823\u20131891). Watercolor and possibly ink; sheet: 28.8 x 41.1 cm (11 5/16 x 16 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2010.289", "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.289"}]}}