This exquisite mid-19th-century oil painting by Swedish artist Sophie Ribbing (1835-1894) depicts an Italian girl holding a basket of grapes while standing before a landscape. Ribbing was an academy-trained painter of genre scenes and portraits.

With the hint of an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile, she looks out through heavy-lidded cobalt eyes, which shimmer like lost silver in the Roman Campagna. It’s a masterpiece in every sense of the word. Personal, sensitive, honest, and rendered with an advanced understanding of chiaroscuro, gained after decades of study. Rest upon the fruit, it’s a still life in itself.

Ribbing was a free spirit and spent her career travelling extensively between European cities. Born into an aristocratic family, she was raised in a manor house on the Bråneryd estate near Jönköping. Her father, Arvid, was a local governor and her mother Karolina Augusta, was also of nobility. As such, she had access to a fine painting collection from an early age, which would’ve assisted her drawing skills and influenced her tastes.

She trained with some of the finest in Europe, commencing her studies in Stockholm before enrolling at the prestigious Düsseldorf Academy where she was tutored by landscape painter Karl Ferdinand Sohn (1805-1867). From here, she moved to Paris, working under portraitist Jean-Baptiste-Ange Tissier (1814-1876), and finally to Brussels under the history painter Louis Gallait (1810-1887). At every juncture, broadening her knowledge while also gaining valuable life experience.

Equipped with the confidence to explore, she continued to travel, living in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and London. In each city, producing several exhibition pieces for the foremost shows. She was accepted into London’s Royal Academy on several occasions, which is quite an achievement for a tourist.

But it was the spirit of Rome that captured her heart and ignited her imagination. The beauty of its citizens, the crystalline skies, the graceful vocabulary, and the distinction of its history. She stayed awhile, meeting with fellow artists, writers, and other Scandinavian travellers. These included the Norwegian literary historian, Gerhard von der Lippe Gran, who often socialised with Ribbing at ‘Croce’, a quaint eatery. We’ve published his full account in our directory in which he elegantly describes the environment.

“While we ate and drank our glorious wine, we did not forget to study the surroundings. Around us at the wooden tables sat farmers and peasant girls in their colourful national costumes, picture-perfect models, tanned coachmen and broad-shouldered workers.”
“Among the regular guests at these gatherings in Croce, I would especially like to mention the painter Miss Christiane Schreiber*, who could tell so interestingly about her youth and about Welhaven, the lovely gifted Sophie Ribbing from Sweden, Miss Schreiber's inseparable friend, Kathinka Kondrup, the brilliant Danish sculptor, radiant and vivacious, to whom I had particularly attached myself, and the Norwegian candidate Oscar Westergaard, an amiable original, who soon became my good friend.”

*Christiane Schreiber (1822-1898) was a Norwegian portraitist who became Ribbing’s life partner. The pair met during their training in Düsseldorf and travelled to Paris together.

In 1864, Ribbing produced a depiction of two boys drawing, titled ‘Ritande Gossar’, which is regarded as one of Sweden’s defining works. In 2016, the Swedish National Heritage Board selected it to represent the nation for 'Europeana 280'.

Today, she’s represented in numerous public collections including at Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum and the Uffizi in Florence.

Signed in the lower left and held within a beautiful gilt frame, which is probably original.

Learn more about Sophie Ribbing in our directory.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 36½” x 45½” / 93cm x 116cm
Year of creation: c. 1860
Labels & Inscriptions: ‘Bruxelles’ inscription on the reverse.
Provenance: Private collection, Norway.
Condition: Cleaned. Craquelure throughout. One historic repair. The paint layer is stable. Frame in good condition with minor age-related wear.
Our reference: BRV1892