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Lot Essay
This pair of pictures belongs thematically to a group of capricci by the artist showing imaginary park scenes beside ornamental lakes and canals, often with figures relaxing in rowing boats and canopied barges. Their festive atmosphere recalls the earlier fêtes galantes of Jean-Antoine Watteau, and the work of Robert's contemporary, Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Robert, however, abandons any ambiguous subtext in favour of a more detached ornamental view. The present pictures may be compared with La Barque, Montcalm Collection, Montpellier (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Dec. 1931, VIII, p. 3), A Park Scene, The Institute of Fine Arts, Detroit (Detroit Institute Bulletin, Oct. 1928, X, 1, p. 1) and La Promenade au Bateau, with Wildenstein, New York, in 1929. The latter is signed and dated 1786, and on this basis, a date in the 1780s may be suggested for the present pictures. These differ, however, in their particularly small size. They also display a direct freshness of approach sometimes lost in Robert's larger scale works.
A larger reworking of La Portique (44 x 56½in.), from the collection of Sir George Bull, Bt., was sold in these Rooms, 2 July 1965, lot 4. It reproduces the archtectural juxtaposition of a portico in front of a curving wall with niches and statuary, although the latter is reduced in relative height and scale, and appears much wider.
A larger reworking of La Portique (44 x 56½in.), from the collection of Sir George Bull, Bt., was sold in these Rooms, 2 July 1965, lot 4. It reproduces the archtectural juxtaposition of a portico in front of a curving wall with niches and statuary, although the latter is reduced in relative height and scale, and appears much wider.