The history, genre and portrait painter Théodule Ribot, born in 1823, began working in the atelier of the well-known Salon artist Auguste Barthélemy Glaize in Paris. He regularly studied the old masters in the Louvre, and was especially admiring of the works of Goya, Ribera, Zurbaran and Caravaggio. Thus his work not only stands in the tradition of such chiaroscuro painting, but also his interest in human suffering and psychological portraits exhibits borrowings from his Spanish and Italian models. In the late 1850s, Ribot began to turn to realistic everyday depictions. In 1861 he succeeded with genre pictures, to which medals were later awarded, at the Paris Salon. In 1878 Ribot became a member of the Légion d'honneur. He then increasingly withdrew from his artistic activity until his death in Colombes in 1891.
