.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Ribot began his studies at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers de Chalons. Upon the death of his father, he went to Paris where he worked as a store decorator and studied in the studio of August-Barthélémy Glaize. After a three year period of travel through Germany, he returned to Paris. He debuted at the Salon of 1861 and receivedmedals in 1864 and 1865, and a medaille de troisième classe in 1878, the same year in which he received the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. Ribot was one of the founders of the Salon du Champs de Mars with Alphonse Legros, Fantin-Latour and Whistler who shared an admiration for Courbet and realism. As a painter of a myriad of subjects including genre, history, still lifes and portraits, Ribot shows a rich concern with the effects of painting in 'plein air' and the psychological effects of contrasts between darks and lights.
As one of Ribot's early paintings dedicated to the theme of the cook, this work establishes both the painter's abilities as a tonalist and as an intimist. Ribot has concentrated on the way in which the cook offers a morsel of food to the playful cat and on the theatrically illuminated environment, in which the cook has been positioned.
Attention moves from the brilliantly painted plate of eggs, to the white uniform of the cook, to the subtle highlights on the glass wine and the earthenware pitcher on the floor; these provide details that add further character to the genre scene. Included in Ribot's retrospective exhibition at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in May 1892, this painting reiterated the artist's reputation as a master painter of a major theme; cooks had proliferated in popularity and Ribot was recognized as the first painter in the nineteenth century to contribute to this appreciation.This catalogue entry has been prepared with the assistance of Dr. Gabriel P. Weisberg.
As one of Ribot's early paintings dedicated to the theme of the cook, this work establishes both the painter's abilities as a tonalist and as an intimist. Ribot has concentrated on the way in which the cook offers a morsel of food to the playful cat and on the theatrically illuminated environment, in which the cook has been positioned.
Attention moves from the brilliantly painted plate of eggs, to the white uniform of the cook, to the subtle highlights on the glass wine and the earthenware pitcher on the floor; these provide details that add further character to the genre scene. Included in Ribot's retrospective exhibition at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in May 1892, this painting reiterated the artist's reputation as a master painter of a major theme; cooks had proliferated in popularity and Ribot was recognized as the first painter in the nineteenth century to contribute to this appreciation.This catalogue entry has been prepared with the assistance of Dr. Gabriel P. Weisberg.