Théodule Ribot

Louis Mante, Marseille (and sold: Galerie Charpentier, Paris, November 28, 1956)
Mme. de Margerie
B. Buchanan
Sale: Christie's, London, June 25, 1982, lot 24, illustrated
Collection of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum, Toronto (and sold, Sotheby's, New York, May 23, 1997, lot 76, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Musée du Louvre, La diseuse de bonne aventure de Caravagge, 1977, no. 148

Jean Pierre Cuzin, Les Dossiers du Départment des Peintres, Paris, 1977, no. 13, p. 51-2, illustrated

Lined. Small surface scuffs to center right edge due to frame abrasion. Under UV: Heavy varnish fluoresces green. Isolated dots and dashes of inpainting in areas of composition, such as the red cloth of figure at lower left, in the face of girl at upper left, in the outstretched hand of figure to her right, and above hand of figure at far right. Two areas of 1.5 inch restorations in lower left and lower right corners.
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As one of the more independent painters of the nineteenth century, Théodule Ribot was largely self-taught. His only recorded training was from a period in the studio of the artist Auguste-Barthélemy Glaize, and he otherwise worked a series of odd jobs to support his family, including the decoration of gilded frames and window shades, coloring lithographs and copying images of Jean-Antoine Watteau for the export trade to America.

Ribot worked at night by lamplight, creating dramatic scenes that included still life paintings, religious compositions, cooks and other laborers. When composing his figural groups, he often relied on members of his family and friends to serve as available models, and often his daughter Louise (who became a still-life painter herself). Such familiar sitters allowed him to paint intimate and naturalistic canvases that reflect a deepened psychological connection with his subject. Arranged in tight groups, often against the frontal plane of the canvas, the viewer’s attention is concentrated on facial expressions and the subtle interplay of gesturing hands. Here, with her weather-beaten complexion, the elderly fortune teller examines the fingers and palms of a young woman as others look on, or try to decipher their own palms.

This arrangement recalls similar compositions from the seventeenth century by Caravaggio and his followers. The origins of Ribot’s interest in rich tones, and the spotlighting of certain faces or hands for emphasis, further reveals that the painter was strongly indebted to earlier traditions, such as the Spanish and Dutch Masters, Jusepe de Ribera and Rembrandt van Rijn, as well as his Realist contemporaries, Gustave Courbet and François Bonvin. The latter gave Ribot an opportunity to exhibit his paintings in his studio after they were rejected by the Salon in 1859.