Antonio (Antoni) Ribas Oliver was genre, portrait and landscape painter who was born on 17 February 1845 in Palma, Mallorca. He also went under the pseudonym ‘Antonio Rivas'. He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palma where he studied under Juan Mestre, Miguel Torres Sancho and Guillermo Torres. He exhibited at the Madrid National Art Exhibitions of 1864, 1866 and 1887 and won first prize at the Art Exhibition of the Academia de Belles Artes, Barcelona in 1866. He was appointed Professor at the Palma Academy in 1872 where he taught classes on landscape and perspective.

In 1876, he founded the Society for the Promotion of Painting and Sculpture along with his friend Ricardo Anckermann, John O’Neill and Fausto Morell. Oliver travelled to Paris with the society to exhibit at the Universal Exposition of 1878 and exhibited at the Algiers Exhibition in 1880 winning a bronze medal. He died on 19 January 1911 in Mallorca. Oliver is considered to be the patriarch of Mallorcan art and his works are highly collectable.