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Lot Essay
During one of the darkest moments of the French Revolution, Baron Grimm recounted that the Russian Empress, Catherine the Great - who had repeatedly importuned Hubert Robert, without success, to go to Russia - observed wittily that the famous painter of ruins was undoubtedly loathe to leave France just when he was surrounded by his favourite subject. Robert never made the journey, but he would have found himself welcomed warmly at Catherine's court where, with the patronage and encouragement of his old friend Count Aleksandr Sergeyevich Stroganov (1734-1811), he had developed a large and active circle of aristocratic collectors. Stroganov, whose fortune derived from his family's monopoly on salt extraction in Russia, had spent almost two years in France during his Grand Tour of Europe in early 1750s; when he returned for an even more extended stay in the 1770s, he befriended the artistic members of his Masonic lodge, in particular Hubert Robert and Jean-Antoine Houdon, and began actively adding there works to his already large art collection. Upon his return home in 1778, he introduced the works of Robert and Houdon, among other French artists, to Catherine (he served as her Chamberlain) and her son, the Grand Duke Paul, and to members of several of the wealthiest and grandest Russian families. As a man of renowned taste and President of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, Stroganov wielded great influence, and soon Robert was receiving extensive decorative commissions from the crown as well as from the princes Nicolai Youssoupov and Dimitri Alexseevitch Golitzine, and the counts Chouvalov, Rostoptchine and Bezborodko, to name only the most illustrious. Many of Robert's paintings are still in situ, in the palaces at Pavlovsk, Arkhangel'skoye, and Tsarskoie Selo, and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (where seized paintings nationalized during the Soviet era were consigned) has the most extensive collection of his paintings in the world.
The present pictures were commissioned from Stroganov in a set with three other ovals in 1796, presumably for installation in rooms in the Stroganov Palace that were newly refitted and decorated to accommodate his extensive Parisian purchases. The Count created a 'library' for his enormous collection of Robert's paintings, with mineral cabinets, a picture gallery and a gallery of antiquities. By the middle of the 19th century, the suite of five oval paintings by Robert decorated boiserie paneling in Stroganov House, the residence of Count Paul Stroganov (1823-1911) on Sergiyevskaya (now Tchaikovsky) Street. The set was acquired by private sale in 1931 by the dealers Wildenstein, who exhibited it in New York in 1935. It is not clear when the set was split, but the present pair appeared alone in the Erickson sale in 1961, and thereafter.
The present location of the other three ovals from the suite is unknown. However, their subjects - Paysage avec bouvier et cascade, Paysage avec ruines and Paysage avec cascade - makes clear that they were landscapes of a bucolic and even nostalgic vein in keeping with the present canvases. Even while Robert was imprisoned during the French Revolution in 1793-4, he continued to paint landscape reveries, in addition to his fascinating depictions of contemporary prison life. No doubt, these imaginary landscapes provided him with a happy escape from the fear and boredom of prison confinement, as they provided a collector like Stroganov a brief diversion from icy Russian winters, and inspired memories of a far-away France where he had spent many happy years.
We are grateful to Joseph Baillio of the Wildenstein Institute for his assistance in cataloguing this lot, and confirming details of the provenance.
The present pictures were commissioned from Stroganov in a set with three other ovals in 1796, presumably for installation in rooms in the Stroganov Palace that were newly refitted and decorated to accommodate his extensive Parisian purchases. The Count created a 'library' for his enormous collection of Robert's paintings, with mineral cabinets, a picture gallery and a gallery of antiquities. By the middle of the 19th century, the suite of five oval paintings by Robert decorated boiserie paneling in Stroganov House, the residence of Count Paul Stroganov (1823-1911) on Sergiyevskaya (now Tchaikovsky) Street. The set was acquired by private sale in 1931 by the dealers Wildenstein, who exhibited it in New York in 1935. It is not clear when the set was split, but the present pair appeared alone in the Erickson sale in 1961, and thereafter.
The present location of the other three ovals from the suite is unknown. However, their subjects - Paysage avec bouvier et cascade, Paysage avec ruines and Paysage avec cascade - makes clear that they were landscapes of a bucolic and even nostalgic vein in keeping with the present canvases. Even while Robert was imprisoned during the French Revolution in 1793-4, he continued to paint landscape reveries, in addition to his fascinating depictions of contemporary prison life. No doubt, these imaginary landscapes provided him with a happy escape from the fear and boredom of prison confinement, as they provided a collector like Stroganov a brief diversion from icy Russian winters, and inspired memories of a far-away France where he had spent many happy years.
We are grateful to Joseph Baillio of the Wildenstein Institute for his assistance in cataloguing this lot, and confirming details of the provenance.