Hubert Robert

Presumably the comte de Marescalchi, 111 Rue La Boetie, Paris;
duc de Massa (who purchased the residence of the comte de Marescalchi in 1853),
By descent until with M. Martin, Sweden, 1947;
Carnegie Fondkommission, Stockholm;
By whom sold, Bukowsky, Stockholm, 9-12 November 1966;
Where acquired by Wildenstein;
By whom sold to an American private collector;
With Simon C. Dickinson, Ltd., London;
There purchased by the present collector. 

To be included in the forthcoming critical catalogue of the paintings of Hubert Robert in preparation at the Wildenstein Institute, Paris.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work is restored and in very good condition. The canvas has a glue lining. The paint layer is stable. Under ultraviolet light, there are retouches to a few cracks in the sky directly above the ruins in the center of the work, to some losses in the upper center of the sky and in a few isolated spots on the right edge and upper left. The sky is very healthy. The condition seems to be good in the darker colors of the ruins. There is a meandering break in the work beginning in the lower left sky that travels through the standing male figure leaning on the post. The mountains in the distance have also received a few retouches. The condition can be considered very good for a work of this scale and period. The painting should be hung in its current state.
"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 impressive canvas by Hubert Robert was originally part of a group of nine works by the artist that adorned an interior at the Hotel de Massa, formerly at 111 Rue La Boetie, Paris.  The residence was built in the late 1770s for M. Thiroux de Monsauge and was sold in 1787 to the Duc de Richelieu.¹  After Richelieu's exile in 1790, the building remained unoccupied until the comte Marascalchi purchased it in 1804.  The set of Robert paintings, which are dated 1797 or 1799, likely entered the house after that date.  The house was then purchased by the Ducs de Massa in 1853 and demolished in 1909. 

Six of the paintings in the set were sold by the Massa heirs in Paris in 1947 through M. Martin and moved to Sweden.  Two of those works were then purchased by the National Museum in Stockholm in 1948,² and the Indianapolis Museum of Art purchased another work in the group in 1958 (fig. 1).³  The other three were sold to private collectors in Stockholm: two to C.G. Langenskiold and one to Dr. E. Perman.  All three were sold at auction in 1966 to Wildenstein and then entered an American private collection. 

1. M. Vacquier, Les Vieux Hôtels de Paris Le Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris 1913, series 7, vol. I, pp. 3-4
2. View from a Terrace, oil on canvas, 288 by 139 cm., signed and dated 1799 (inv. no. 4507) and Ruins of a Circular Temple with Apollo Belvedere, oil on canvas, 288 by 139 cm., signed and dated 1799 (inv. no. 4508), see Stockholm National Museum, Paintings and Sculpture: Foreign Schools, 1958, p. 170.
3. Architectural Scene with Women Washing Clothes at a Pool, oil on canvas, 70 by 43 in. (acc. no. 58.88), see A Catalogue of European Paintings, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1970, no. 141.