Hubert Robert

Allard de Meeus ;

Jacques Doucet ;

His sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, June 5, 1912, lot 42 ;

Paris, private collection.

By 1782, when he produced this drawing, Hubert Robert was an accomplished and experienced artist. He had spent a long time in Italy, where he studied at the Académie de France à Rome and forged his style. On his return to Paris, his reputation preceded him. In 1766, he became a member of the Académie, then Dessinateur des Jardins du Roi in 1778.

Our drawing is similar to several title pages or frontispieces that Robert produced for his albums of drawings. During his stay, he drew and painted the landscapes he encountered, building up a repertoire of landscapes and motifs that inspired his later works. We know of a preparatory drawing for this composition in the Louvre (81 x 116 mm, RF 11499, Recto) and a smaller copy (410 x 355 mm) sold in Paris in 1914 (Vente du marquis de Biron, Paris, galerie Georges Petit, June 9, 1914, lot 52). Only three of the fifty or so collections of drawings mentioned in the catalog of the sale of his studio in April 1809 have not since been dismembered. Several of these frontispieces are held in museums, notably the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie in Besançon and the Musée du Louvre (RF 30585, Recto).

This drawing is typical of the artist's graphic work. It reveals his interest in architectural ruins, which earned him the nickname “Robert des Ruines”. Above all, this capriccio is a fine example of the ease with which he composed and brought to life his imaginary landscapes. 

This drawing belonged to Jacques Doucet's important collection, and decorated one of the walls of the Salon des Pastels in his private mansion built by the architect Louis Parent at 19 rue Spontini. It can also be seen on the design by Adrien Karbowsky, who created the painted decor for the hotel, and on one of the photographs of the interior (fig. 1: Hôtel de Jacques Doucet, Salon des pastels : vue nord-est, silver print, c.1911-1912, (Paris, Bibliothèque de l'INHA, fonds Jacques Doucet, archives 97/1/23)).

We would like to thank Madame Sarah Catala for confirming the attribution of this drawing to Hubert Robert on the basis of a photograph.