Lot Essay
The drawing is datable to Robert's to the early 1760s, during the artist's stay in Rome. Drawings of the Roman campagna similar in technique are in the Veyrenc Collection in Valence, J. de Cayeux, Les Hubert Robert de la Collection Veyrenc au Musée de Valence, Valence, 1985, nos. 9-12, illustrated.
Another version of the presemy drawing, of approximately the same size, is in the Pierre-Adrien Pâris Collection at Besançon, Cornillot, op. cit., no. 146, illustrated. Robert often executed his drawings in multiple versions, usually by taking a counterproof that was sometimes reworked in pen and wash or watercolour. Some other landscapes are drawn again from slightly different angles, but more seldom, as in the present case, Robert executed two versions in the same direction of nearly the same composition. Another instance of this is found in a drawing also from the Pâris collecion (Cornillot, op. cit., no. 153, illustrated) of which another version was in Marius Paulme's collection sold in Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 14 May 1929, lot 224, pl. 152. Pâris also owned a large number of Robert counterproofs.
Another version of the presemy drawing, of approximately the same size, is in the Pierre-Adrien Pâris Collection at Besançon, Cornillot, op. cit., no. 146, illustrated. Robert often executed his drawings in multiple versions, usually by taking a counterproof that was sometimes reworked in pen and wash or watercolour. Some other landscapes are drawn again from slightly different angles, but more seldom, as in the present case, Robert executed two versions in the same direction of nearly the same composition. Another instance of this is found in a drawing also from the Pâris collecion (Cornillot, op. cit., no. 153, illustrated) of which another version was in Marius Paulme's collection sold in Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 14 May 1929, lot 224, pl. 152. Pâris also owned a large number of Robert counterproofs.