- 156
Hubert Robert
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 USD
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Description
- Hubert Robert
- A Courtyard at the Villa Pamphilj, Rome
- Black chalk, pen and brown ink and watercolor;
signed and dated: H. ROBERT A ROMA 1762 - 12 5/8 x 17 5/8 inches
Provenance
Robert kept the present drawing for seven years before exhibiting it at the Salon;
P.-J. Mariette (L1852, twice),
his sale, Paris, 26 November 1775-30 January 1776, part of lot 1345,
where purchased by Laideguive (a member of an important Parisian Family, for 430 pounds);
A.D. Bérard (L.75);
Henri Lacroix,
his sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, 19 March 1890, part of lot 88;
Louis Cartier,
by descent to his son Claude Cartier,
his sale, Monaco, Sotheby's, 26 November 1979, lot 514;
sale, New York, Christie's, 28 January 2000, lot 73
P.-J. Mariette (L1852, twice),
his sale, Paris, 26 November 1775-30 January 1776, part of lot 1345,
where purchased by Laideguive (a member of an important Parisian Family, for 430 pounds);
A.D. Bérard (L.75);
Henri Lacroix,
his sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, 19 March 1890, part of lot 88;
Louis Cartier,
by descent to his son Claude Cartier,
his sale, Monaco, Sotheby's, 26 November 1979, lot 514;
sale, New York, Christie's, 28 January 2000, lot 73
Exhibited
Paris, Salon, 1769, under no. 98
Literature
C. Gabillot, Hubert Robert et son temps, Paris 1895, p. 129, reproduced;
J. Cailleux, 'Hubert Robert's Submissions to the Salon of 1769', The Burlington Magazine, 1975, supplement October 1975, note 67;
V. Carlson, Hubert Robert, Drawings & Watercolours, exhib. cat., Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, 1978, under no. 39;
P. Rosenberg, Les Dessins de la Collection Mariette: École Française, 2 vols., Milan 2011, vol. II, p. 1031, F2716, reproduced
J. Cailleux, 'Hubert Robert's Submissions to the Salon of 1769', The Burlington Magazine, 1975, supplement October 1975, note 67;
V. Carlson, Hubert Robert, Drawings & Watercolours, exhib. cat., Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, 1978, under no. 39;
P. Rosenberg, Les Dessins de la Collection Mariette: École Française, 2 vols., Milan 2011, vol. II, p. 1031, F2716, reproduced
Catalogue Note
This charming and lively watercolor is another fine example of one of Robert's drawings executed during his sojourn in Rome in 1762. As he so often did, Robert has here combined with great success the depiction of noble, classical ruins and people going about their daily activities. The setting is a perfect balance between the majestic monumentality provided by the Corinthian columns that occupy the right of the composition and the steady bustle of Roman life, seen in the figures doing their washing in the courtyard of the villa and a delightful figure group with a child learning to walk.
Robert clearly valued this fine watercolour very highly, keeping it for seven years, before exhibiting it at the Salon of 1769. Another version of this drawing, in reverse, is in the Cleveland Museum of Art.1 The Cleveland drawing was born as an offset of the present black chalk composition. Robert kept the Cleveland counterproof, which is dated 1774, for no less than twelve years before adding the watercolor to it.
The present drawing is one of three sketched by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in the margin beside number 98, in his copy of the 1769 Salon exhibition handbook.2
1. Carlson, op.cit., no. 39
2. Cailleux, op.cit., fig. 1