Nicknamed “Robert of the Ruins,” Hubert Robert depicted picturesque ancient ruins and contemporary structures, real and imagined, while living in Italy for eleven years. While there, he was influenced by the Italian painter Giovanni Paolo Panini, known for his paintings of ancient ruins, and also collected the prints of Roman views and archaeological sites by Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
The setting represented in this red chalk drawing is the double staircase that ascends to a garden casino at the Palazzo Farnese, Caprarola. Robert improvised by placing the sculpture of Roma armata in the central niche behind the water basin, which at the time was in fact attached to a fountain in front of the Palazzo Senatorio in central Rome. Robert portrayed this villa in several sketches and paintings during his years of study in Rome, and even when he returned to France. It can be compared most closely to one sheet in the Library of Besançon (fig. 42.1).1
Robert’s drawings were much sought after by collectors and were often created as independent works of art.—Dena M. Woodall
Notes
1. See M. Feuillet, Les dessins d’Honore Fragonard et de Hubert Robert des Bibliotheque et de Musee de Besancon, 1926, pl. LIII.
Le Grand Escalier (The Large Staircase)
Batigne, Claire. Royal Academy Exhibition of French Art. Exh. cat. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1932.
Brajović, Saša and Tatjana Bošnjak. Imaginary Gardens of Hubert Robert. From the series From the Treasures of the National Museum. Belgrade: National Museum, 2012.
Carlson, Victor. “Hubert Robert at Caprarola, Two Drawings in American Collections.” Apollo 87 (February 1969): 118–23.
Carlson, Victor. Hubert Robert, Drawings & Watercolors. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1978.
Catala, Sarah. Les Hubert Robert de Besançon. Exh. cat. Milan: Silvana, 2013.
Cayeux, Jean de. Hubert Robert et les jardins. Paris: Editions Herscher, 1987.
Cohn, Marjorie. “A Counterproof Attributed to Hubert Robert and Its Printing.” Master Drawings 53 no. 4 (2015).
Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of French Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933.
Faroult, Guillaume, ed., and Catherine Voiriot. Hubert Robert 1733–1808: Un peintre visionnaire. Paris: Somogy Editions, 2016.
Grasselli, Margaret Morgan, and Jackall, Yuriko. Hubert Robert. Washington, D.C.: Lund Humphries, 2016.
Michel, Marianne Roland. “Light and Ruins: Fragonard and Hubert Robert in Rome.” Master Drawings 29 no. 4 (Winter 1991).
Moulin-Stanislas, Helene. Hubert Robert: Embarcadere pour le musée de Valence. Valence, France: Fage, 2014.
Ricci, Seymour di. Dessins du XVIII e siècle Collection Albert Meyer. Paris: J.A. Seligmann, 1935.
Salerno, Luigi. I pittori di vedute in Italia, 1580–1830. Rome: U. Bozzi, 1991.
Ubassy-Catala, Sarah. “Hubert Robert et l’usage de la contre-epreuve.” Espaces dessines/Espaces du dessin (2014).
Comparative Images
Fig. 42.2. Hubert Robert, Une fontaine formant un ruisseau, près duquel sont des laveuses (counterproof), red chalk on laid paper, Bibliothèque municipal, Besançon, collection Pierre-Adrien Paris, vol. 451, no. 33. © Besançon bibliothèque municipal.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has made every effort to contact all copyright holders for images and objects reproduced in this online catalogue. If proper acknowledgment has not been made, please contact the Museum.