Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009771Lazarillo de Tormes and His Blind Master
About the Artwork
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.
Inscriptions
Signed lower left: t. Ribot
Provenance
1897: (E. Oppenheim sale, Hôtel Drouot, May 11, 1897, no. 22, unsold 1911: (Possibly Bernheim-Jeune, Paris) 1918: (Sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 4-5, 1918, no. 8) 1973: (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) 1973-1980: 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 1980-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981). Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 25-June 29, 2003). Théodule Ribot (1823-1891): A Delightful Darkness. Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France (October 16, 2021-January 2, 2022) https://www.augustins.org/en/exhibition-theodule-ribot; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille, Marseille, France (February 10-May 15, 2022); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen, France (organizer) (June 11-October 2, 2022) https://mba.caen.fr/exposition/theodule-ribot.
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Théodule Ribot (French, 1823–1891)
- Date
- before 1880
- 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.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1980.282
More by Théodule Ribot in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009771
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