Description
The subject of this painting comes from the 16th-century Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes. This tells the story of Lazarillo, a poor servant boy who worked for an impoverished blind man. Abused by his master, and never given enough to eat or drink, Lazarillo is forced to fend for himself. According to the story, he steals wine by drinking it from a straw directly from the blind man's jug. This painting relates to a cultural movement known as espagnolisme, the French interest in Spanish art and literature. Especially popular during the 1850s, espagnolisme focused upon realistic, often down-trodden characters such as Lazarillo. Instead of finding them naïve or foolishly humorous, artists such as Ribot related to their alienation from society and found inspiration in the detailed descriptions of their rough, lowly lifestyles.
Provenance
(E. Oppenheim sale, Hôtel Drouot, May 11, 1897, no. 22, unsold (1897); (Possibly Bernheim-Jeune, Paris) (1911); (Sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 4-5, 1918, no. 8) (1918); (Hôtel Drouot, Nov. 7, 1973 [no lot number, reproduced on page 3], sold to Peter Wengraf on behalf of Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin) (1973); Noah L. [1918-1980] and Muriel S. Butkin [1915-2008], Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Muriel S. Butkin (1973-1980); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1980-)
Accession Number
1980.282
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
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.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Lazarillo de Tormes and His Blind Master from before 1880 depicts a subject from the Spanish picaresque novel Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), in which the poor boy Lazarillo serves a blind beggar who teaches him the harsh lessons of survival. Ribot's Spanish subject reflects the influence of Spanish painting on French art in the 19th century, and the picaresque subject allows him to exercise his talent for depicting humble characters in dramatic lighting. The before-1880 date places this in Ribot's mature period, when he was producing the Spanish-influenced genre scenes that were his most accomplished works.
Cultural Impact
Lazarillo de Tormes is important in Ribot's oeuvre because it demonstrates the Spanish influence that distinguishes his work from the more typically French genre subjects of his Realist colleagues. The picaresque subject of a poor boy serving a blind beggar allows Ribot to combine the Spanish tenebrism of his lighting with the Spanish literary tradition of the picaresque novel, creating a painting that is Spanish in both its visual style and its literary source.
Why It Matters
Lazarillo de Tormes and His Blind Master is Ribot's Spanish influence at its most complete: a subject from the Spanish picaresque novel rendered in the tenebrist lighting of Spanish Baroque painting. The before-1880 painting combines Spanish literary tradition with Spanish visual style in a uniquely Spanish-influenced genre subject.
