(Vienna 1848–1904)
An Avenue in Cayeaux, signed, dated and inscribed Ribarz 1881, Cayeux, oil on canvas 40 x 61.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galerie Jacques Kugel, Paris;
Dorotheum, Vienna, 16 March 1971, lot 107;
Where acquired in 1971.

Rudolf Ribarz decided on an artistic career early on - against the will of his father, who had destined him for commerce. He took private drawing lessons from 1860 onwards and went on to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts after graduating from the School of Commerce. There he attended Albert Zimmermann’s landscape painting classes, counting Eugen Jettel, Emil Jakob Schindler and Robert Russ among his classmates. Ribarz was inspired to continue his education in France after encountering the works of French landscape painters Gustave Courbet, Camille Corot and Claude Monet in 1869 while participating in the First International Art Exhibition at the Munich Glaspalast. This wish would, however, take several years to fulfil. In the meantime, he undertook study trips to Italy and Belgium, before eventually settling in Paris for 16 years.
His depictions of the northern French coast and the Netherlands are characterised by a poetic mood, as is the case for the present lot. The limited, earthy colour palette, the low horizon line, and the cloudy sky reflect the vastness of the landscape. The lady walking alone along the avenue conveys a quiet idyllic quality, which is accentuated by restrained chromaticity.