Hubert Robert

Anonymous sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 5 December 1955, lot 1-5, when acquired by
H.E. Jorge Ortiz Linares and Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares;
Thence by descent.

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas appears in a good condition; there are no obvious planar deformations and the overall tension appears good. The adhesion between the original and the lining canvas also appears good. There appears to be two joins in the canvas, these appear to be either seams or additional strips added to the right side of the painting located across the upper right corner and running the entire length 24.5cm from the right edge. The paint layers appear in relatively good condition; thinly applied there are no recent damages or loss and the adhesion between the paint and ground layers appear good. There is a fine craqulure pattern across the surface, with a prominent stretcher bar mark running horizontally across the upper third. This is not visually disturbing. There are scattered areas of over-paint located at the site of losses in the upper half of the composition. The seams or joins at the right side have been over-painted during a previous restoration campaign. The vertical seam has been extensively over-painted in the waterfall in the lower right quadrant where there is a relatively large area of glazing, which has continued throughout the foliage. There does not appear to be any evidence of widespread abrasion and this amount of over-paint does appear excessive. The second seam runs horizontally from the join to the right edge in the top right corner. The over-paint in the upper half of the composition across the sky appears much more confined to areas of abrasion or actual loss. There are minor areas of strengthening on the figures in the foreground. The painting appears to have been partially cleaned; there are areas of discoloured varnish which fluoresces strongly in ultra violet examination, which appears to have been preferentially cleared from the lighter areas such as the sky, waterfall and the white drapery of the figures. The painting was examined in the frame.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This vast and imposing canvas originally formed part of a set of five large paintings, completed in 1782 for an as yet unknown interior decorative scheme.¹ Another from this set, La Débarcadère is the next lot in this sale. All five canvases remained together until their dispersal at auction in 2002. By the early 1780s Hubert Robert had firmly established himself as the foremost exponent of architectural and landscape painting in France. His mastery of large scale landscape decorations, where fantasy was ably blended with topographical or classical architectural elements drawn from his experiences in Italy, had won him patronage of royalty and numbers of wealthy private clients. Among his more notable commissions in this vein were the set of four pictures painted for the Comte d'Artois, later Charles X, in 1778 for Bagatelle near Paris, the four large canvases executed for the dining room of the Château de Méréville in 1788 (Art Institute, Chicago), and another four painted for Louis XVI for the Château at Fontainbleau in the previous year (Louvre, Paris). Robert's success was particularly notable in Russia, where he painted, for example, a series of large scale works for Catherine the Great and also her son the Grand Duke Paul at his palace at Petrovsk. The theme of waterfalls and cascades was a favourite of Robert's, and was often based from his experiences of the great falls at Tivoli in Italy; another even larger canvas in this vein, for example, painted in 1774 and later in the collection of Baron de Cassin was with Wildenstein in New York in 1988.²

This series formerly hung in the private Parisian mansion belonging to Jorge and Graziella Ortiz Linares on the avenue Foch in Paris. The collection was famous for its important French furniture, decorative art and paintings, including works by Watteau and Fragonard, but above all for the collection of French silver. Some idea of the original appearance of the group can be gleaned from a set of watercolours of the interior of the residence by the Russian artist Alexandre Serebriakoff (1907-1994) (fig.1).³ 

This and the following lot will both be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Hubert Robert being prepared by Joseph Baillio under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.

1. The first and largest of these, titled La Crique, is signed and dated H. Robert 1782.; canvas 238 by 225 cm..
2. J. Stourton, Great Collectors of our time. Art collecting since 1945, London 2007, pp. 34-36.
3. Canvas, 243 by 191 cm.; exhibited, New York, Wildenstein, Hubert Robert: the pleasure of ruins, 1988, p. 34.