Four Girls Studying a Drawing

Four Girls Studying a Drawing from 1876 is a more domestic and intimate subject than Ribot's better-known tenebrist genre scenes, depicting four girls examining a drawing in the watercolor medium that he used for his most spontaneous works. The domestic subject—girls studying a drawing—and the intimate scale suggest a personal work rather than a Salon submission, and the watercolor medium allows a spontaneity and lightness that the darker, more dramatic oil paintings lack. The 1876 date places this in Ribot's mature period, when he was producing both the tenebrist oils for which he is better known and the more intimate watercolors that complement his public work.

Four Girls Studying a Drawing is important in Ribot's oeuvre because it shows the more intimate and domestic side of an artist better known for his dramatically lit genre scenes. The watercolor medium allows a spontaneity and lightness that the darker oil paintings lack, and the domestic subject of girls studying a drawing shows Ribot's democratic taste extending to the education of women, a progressive subject for a 19th-century genre painter.

Four Girls Studying a Drawing is Ribot's intimate domestic side: four girls examining a drawing rendered in watercolor with a spontaneity and lightness that his darker oil paintings lack. The 1876 painting shows the more personal dimension of an artist better known for his dramatically lit tenebrist genre scenes.