Biographies

Theodule-Augustin Ribot (1823 – 1891) Ribot began his studies at the Ecole des Arts et Metiers de Chalons. At the age of seventeen, after his father’s death, he left home and moved to Paris, looking for work to support his new wife, his mother and sisters. In Paris he found employment at the atelier of Auguste-Barthelemy Glaize, where he earned his pay by perfecting architectural backgrounds for his teacher. It is here that Ribot was first exposed to the academic study of the nude. Relying on his studies of seventeenth century Spanish paintings, Ribot began, at the age of twenty-seven, creating his own work. His painting was executed in varying shades of white, gray, and black, using themes readily available to him.After a three-year period of travel through Germany, he returned to Paris. He debuted at the Salon of 1861 and received medals in 1864 and 1865, and a medaille de troisieme classe in 1878, the same year in which he received the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur.Ribot was one of the founders of the Salon du Champs de Mars with , and who shared an admiration for and realism. Alphonse Legros Fantin-Latour Whistler Courbet