Román Ribera Cirera

Roman Ribera was one of the most well-known Spanish painters to move to Paris in the late nineteenth century.  Here, under the influence of fellow artist, Raimundo de Madrazo, he found his subject matter in the fashionable lifestyles of the wealthy Parisian people.  While he would  later direct his attention to showing the reality of the lives of the working poor, upon arriving in Paris, he quickly came to understand that there was a ready market for paintings depicting the glittering “New Paris" of Baron Hausmann.  Arriving at the Pré Catelan Ball, Paris, like James Tissot’s Femme de Paris series (see lot 115), records the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and with its reference to a popular and chic nightspot, documents a specific place and moment in time.