Still Life with Dead Birds and a Basket of Oysters

About the Artwork

Against a dark brown background, Ribot painted a basket filled with oysters. Light coming from the left is gently cast over the wicker basket. A dead magpie, with its white chest and long black beak, emerges from the shadows at the left. This bird, along with the partridge in the foreground, the jay toward the back, and what appears to be a sparrow at the right, are probably located in a kitchen, where preparations for cooking will soon begin. Germain Ribot, who painted genre (everyday life) scenes and still lifes, was the son of the more famous Théodule-Augustin Ribot (1823-1891), known for his working-class and peasant subjects.

Inscriptions

Signed lower left: Germain Ribot

Provenance

K. Wyndham. Sale, London, Christie's, 1 April 1977 (lot 105, repr.), Huîtres et perdrix, for £1,700 to Shepherd Gallery, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Bequeathed to the CMA in 1980

Exhibition history

The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 12, 1980-January 18, 1981). Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981). Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Snite Museum, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (organizer) (September 2-December 2, 2012). 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.

Quick Overview

Artist: Germain Ribot (French, 1845–1893)
Date: c. 1860–80
Medium: oil on fabric
Dimensions: Unframed: 46 x 55.3 cm (18 1/8 x 21 3/4 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Credit line: Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
Accession no.: 1980.281

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.