Pedro Ribera

PEDRO RIBERA (Madrid or Lisbon, 1857- Ciboure, France, 1949).
"Conversation by the river", 1916.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 82 x 102 cm; 94 x 113 cm (frame).

Pedro Ribera (also called Perico Ribera) immortalizes in this double portrait an Andalusian woman, dressed in an elegant dress and mantilla, who stares at the viewer with a mischievous gesture while with her left hand delicately releases the stem of a flower. She displays a traditional brunette beauty and appears in an active pose, rising from the tree branch on which she rests next to the young man who courts her. The boy, dressed in the fashion of the moment, poses his dark eyes on the lady in a flirtatious attitude while in his right hand he holds a Cordovan hat. The painting is part of the romantic folklorist tradition and responds to the inherent casteism of the Spanish culture of the 19th century. The luminosity of the scene, set in a hidden country setting, lends a unique and distinctive character to the composition.

Pedro Ribera was a painter who practiced the landscape genre and the female figure. He trained at the San Fernando Academy, where he received his first teachings from the painters Alejandro Ferrant and Emilio Sala. After touring Seville and Granada with his friend the painter Carlos Vázquez, he moved to Paris around 1886 where he was a disciple of Leon Bonnat (1833 - 1922) and Albert Maignan (1845-1908). In 1890 he moved to San Juan de Luz, participating then in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1890 and painting in 1891 the ceilings of the chatêau Villa Madrid in the French town of Oloron. In the French capital he began to collaborate as a graphic illustrator, sending numerous illustrations on Parisian themes to the magazine Blanco y Negro. In 1898 he participated in the Fine Arts Exhibition of Barcelona and in 1899 he exhibited at the Regional Exhibition of Gijón. He would be a regular exhibitor at the Salons des Artistes Français in Paris since 1900. In 1905 he made a trip to Mexico and later to Argentina. In 1908 he is the founder of the group "les Neuf" in Ciboure, France, together with Ramiro Arrúe, René Choquet, Charles Colin, Jean Charles Domergue, Kenri Godbarge, Pierre Labrouche, George Masson and Raymond Virac. In 1913 he went to Tangier to paint the ceiling of the New Theater. In 1920 he travels to Japan and China, where he decorates the dining room of the Grand Hotel in Peking. Finally he finishes his years in Ciboure, France, where he exhibits his last paintings, including the last ones made in Cameroon.