Lot Essay
A preliminary black chalk sketch for the present drawing is illustrated in S. Raux, Catalogue des dessins français du XVIIIe siècle, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, Paris, 1995, fig. 69b.
In the late 1770s Hubert Robert executed a number of drawings of a similar composition to the present one, some with the gallery leading to the left, and some with the gallery leading to the right. Of the former group are a large drawing of 1780 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, in Lille (Raux, op. cit., no. 69) and another sold Christie's, New York, 13 December 1984. The placement of the figures in both these drawings is very close to that in the present sheet.
Of the latter group are drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, dated 1778 (Raux, op. cit., fig. 69a); dated 1779 formerly with the Slatkin Gallery in New York; in a private collection in Paris (V. Carlson, Hubert Robert, Drawings and Watercolours, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978, no. 49, illustrated) and another sold at Christie's, 25 June 1968, lot 115, illustrated. A painted version is in the Chicago Art Institute, Raux, op. cit., fig. 69c.
It is probable that Robert set out to create an imaginary building based loosely on the Baths of Caracalla and the Baths of Diocletian in Rome. An almost identical colonnade is found in a picture by Lallemand in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Raux, op. cit., p. 180.
In the late 1770s Hubert Robert executed a number of drawings of a similar composition to the present one, some with the gallery leading to the left, and some with the gallery leading to the right. Of the former group are a large drawing of 1780 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, in Lille (Raux, op. cit., no. 69) and another sold Christie's, New York, 13 December 1984. The placement of the figures in both these drawings is very close to that in the present sheet.
Of the latter group are drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, dated 1778 (Raux, op. cit., fig. 69a); dated 1779 formerly with the Slatkin Gallery in New York; in a private collection in Paris (V. Carlson, Hubert Robert, Drawings and Watercolours, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978, no. 49, illustrated) and another sold at Christie's, 25 June 1968, lot 115, illustrated. A painted version is in the Chicago Art Institute, Raux, op. cit., fig. 69c.
It is probable that Robert set out to create an imaginary building based loosely on the Baths of Caracalla and the Baths of Diocletian in Rome. An almost identical colonnade is found in a picture by Lallemand in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Raux, op. cit., p. 180.