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| HUBERT ROBERT ( 1733 - 1808)
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| A capriccio with troubadours and washerwomen by a basin among Roman ruins, a pyramid beyond
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Oil on canvas
26 ½ x 32 in. (67.3 x 81.3 cm.)
Painted circa 1780.
Provenance: Comte de Castellane; Vicomte Chabert de Brack; E. Cuvier (officer of the Banque de France); with J. Seligmann, Paris, by 1930; Private collection; with Wildenstein, New York.
Exhibited: Paris, Galerie Heim-Gairac, L'eau dans la peinture ancienne, 21 May - 20 June 1968, no. 34.
The present painting is a classic example of Hubert Robert's notion of the picturesque in painting. At the centre of an architectural capriccio, Robert recreates the commanding bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I de' Medici, which had been unveiled in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence in 1594. Rather than depict it in its recognizable setting, Robert creates an entirely fantastical site in which he surrounds the statue with vestiges of ancient Roman architecture, notably the famous pyramidal Temple of Cestius and the colonnaded Temple of Saturn. A multitude of figures inhabit the scene, chatting, climbing stairs, washing clothes, and tending children, dressed in a bewildering array of costumes that includes contemporary dress on the washerwomen and children; capes, plumed hats and ruffled collars reminiscent of Renaissance style on the conversing men; and the occasional toga of the ancient world. Painted in a warm chromatic range, the gracefully arranged figures and monuments of different cities, regions and eras all harmoniously coexist in a timeless world beneath a broad sheltering sky.
One of the most prolific and engaging landscape painters of the eighteenth century, Hubert Robert specialized in architectural scenes, often of the monuments of ancient and modern Italy and France, in landscape settings. Robert’s classical education in Paris inspired a youthful fascination with the ancient world, but it was his journey to Rome in 1754 in the entourage of the newly-appointed French Ambassador to the Holy See, - the comte de Stainville, later duc de Choiseul - that introduced him to the monuments of the past that would become his lifelong artistic preoccupation and earn him the sobriquet ‘Robert des Ruines.’ During his 11-year stay in the Eternal City, he met important collectors and artists such as Fragonard, Piranesi and Panini. Robert returned to Paris in 1765, taking with him the drawings of Italian buildings and landscapes that were a source for his paintings for many years after. Following his appointment as a full member of the Académie Royale in 1766, he exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1767 to 1798. Appointed Dessinateur des Jardins du Roi in 1778 he designed new gardens for Louis XVI at the château of Rambouillet and for the Marquise de La Borde de Méréville at Méréville. In 1784 he was made Garde des Tableaux for the Musée Royal, a post he held until his imprisonment in 1793. Immensely popular in his lifetime, he was also successful in Russia thanks largely to his association with Count Stroganov, whom he had met in Rome and who had since become Chamberlain to Catherine II and was thus able to introduce him to Russian patrons.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings by Hubert Robert being prepared by The Wildenstein Institute. A date of circa 1780 has been suggested for this work.
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P. and D. Colnaghi and Co., Ltd - 15 Old Bond Street London W1S 4AX, United Kingdom Tel: +44-20-7491 7408 Fax: +44-20-7491 8851 contact@colnaghi.co.uk
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