A prolific draughtsman, Ribot often treated his drawings as finished works rather than preparatory studies. Our Self Portrait from the late 1880s, drawn in ink is among the most captivating works on paper. Ribot’s features emerge with force and immediacy against a plain background, the vigorous strokes of black and white wash giving the image intensity and dignity. The painter’s pale face, confident beneath his beret, appears with striking clarity, concentrated into a commanding image.
Placed alongside Ribot’s painted self portraits in Lille and Paris, this drawing enriches our understanding of the artist’s self-representation. The same interplay of light and shadow is at work, but with a sharper emphasis on graphic directness. Together with the painted Self Portrait (pp. 8-9), our drawing demonstrates Ribot’s ability to turn the unidealised observation of his own aging features into a broader statement of Realist truth: as Léon de Fourcaud observed, Ribot’s art compels the viewer “to look at what he shows you, to endure his point of view, to feel what he felt”.1
1 Fourcaud, L., in Preface of catalogue Exposition T. Ribot, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, May 1887.