161. Théodule Ribot, Interior of a Kitchen

ArtistThéodule Ribot, French, Saint-Nicolas-d’Attez, Haute-Normandie 1823–Colombes, Ile-de-France 1891
Title, DateInterior of a Kitchen (Intérieur de cuisine), 1860–69
MediumGraphite on beige paper
Dimensions10 × 6 in. (25.4 × 15.2 cm)
ProvenanceAndré Watteau, Paris; his gift to Yvonne and Gabriel Weisberg, Minneapolis
Exhibition History"Reflections on Reality: Drawings and Paintings from the Weisberg Collection," Mia, 2022–23
Credit LinePromised gift of Gabriel P. and Yvonne M.L. Weisberg, Minneapolis

Although this drawing is not signed or dated, it can be given to Théodule Ribot with certainty. Here, he focused on an array of cook-pot lids tidily arranged with other kitchen wares, such as storage containers, a bellows, and a pitcher. The drawing is closely related to an elaborate perspectival study that he made of a whole kitchen (fig. 1). The lined-up lids in the present drawing can be seen above the head of the cook at the center of the study. No known painting corresponds directly to these two studies.

Expand Figure 1 Théodule Ribot, In the Kitchen, pen, pencil, and ink, 22 ½ x 34 ¾ in., Dahesh Museum of Art, New York (1997.39).

Whether because of the colorful duties of young kitchen apprentices or the way he could make the workers’ white uniforms emerge from the darkness, Ribot was attracted to the kitchen environment: his first Salon showing, in 1861, included several paintings of cooks or kitchen interiors. In this predilection, he was not alone. Works by other realists in this catalogue, namely François Bonvin, Claude Joseph Bail, and Antoine Vollon, focus on kitchens and kitchen workers as well.

GPW