Description
Ribot participated in a loosely defined artistic movement known as Realism, which sought to depict the gritty lives of workers and peasants. Often dark in tone and somber in mood, Realist paintings focused attention on social problems. Poor singers like these could be seen on the streets of Paris, but pictures of such singers were already a long-established theme in art history.
Provenance
(Probably Bernheim-Jeune, Paris) (1890); (Possibly Monsieur de H.) (By 1892); Frederick R. Sears, Jr. [1855-1939], Boston (By 1895); (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris) (1925); Norton Gallery, New York (?); Noah L. [1918-1980] and Muriel S. Butkin [1915-1908], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art (Until 1977); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1977-)
Accession Number
1977.127
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
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.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Théodule Ribot (1823-1891) was a French painter known for his intimate genre scenes of humble subjects—cooks, kitchen maids, musicians—rendered in the dark, dramatically lit manner that resembles the Spanish tenebrism of Ribera and Zurbarán. Singers from 1863-68 depicts a group of singers in the chiaroscuro lighting and subdued palette that distinguish Ribot's best work, and the humble subject—a group of ordinary people making music—reflects the democratic taste for genre subjects that characterized French painting in the 1860s.
Cultural Impact
Ribot's genre scenes are important in the history of French painting because they demonstrate the continuing influence of Spanish tenebrism on French Realist painting in the 1860s. Singers shows Ribot applying the dramatic chiaroscuro of Spanish Baroque painting to the humble subject of ordinary people making music, creating a type of Realist genre painting that combines Spanish drama with French democratic taste for genre subjects.
Why It Matters
Singers is Ribot's tenebrist genre painting at its most accomplished: ordinary people making music rendered in the dark, dramatically lit manner that derives from Spanish Baroque painting. The 1863-68 painting demonstrates the continuing influence of Spanish tenebrism on French Realist genre painting in the 1860s.
