.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Until their recent rediscovery, these masterpieces by Hubert Robert were known only from the engravings made after them in 1775 by Jean-François Janinet (1752-1814), which were themselves celebrated as among the finest full-colour reproductive prints of the eighteenth century. Made in a revolutionary manner that imitated watercolour, Janinet's engravings were printed in a subtle mix of yellow, blue and red inks that reflected the appearance of the original paintings, and were captioned with the name of the paintings' first recorded owner, the comte de Baudouin, a Brigadier of the King's Armies and Captain of the French Guards. (For Janinet's prints, see M. Morgan Grasselli, Colorful Impressions: The Printmaking Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France, 2003-4, Washington, D.C., nos. 36-37a & b, pp. 87-9.)
The pictures were executed early in Robert's career, during his decade-long sojourn in Rome - the canvas depicting the 'Palais du Pape Jules' is signed and inscribed 'Romae - 1759' - and Janinet's engravings confirm their Italian subject matter: one depicts the Colonade et jardins du Palais Medicis; the other is set among the Restes du Palais du Pape Jules. Here we can see demonstrated the naturally picturesque sensibility that Robert brought to the creation of his sets of paintings. Both paintings depict famous palaces and popular tourist sites of Renaissance Rome, but the manner in which they are presented provides a series of charming contrasts. In the first, Robert offers a sparkling open-air vision of a terrace outside the Villa Medici on which elegantly dressed tourists promenade, disport themselves in the warm, Mediterranean sunshine, and shelter from the glare beneath parasols and towering umbrella pines. Although two young artists sit on the ground drawing the gardens, they - like Robert himself - were still visitors, not residents, at Villa Medici: the great palace would only become the seat of the French Academy and home to its students in 1801. As was his way, Robert did not hesitate to 'improve' on reality when it suited him, even when depicting a familiar site: in the painting, he altered much of the statuary outside the villa and substituted a garden urn for the famous basin with Giambologna's Mercury.
On the other hand, Robert's interior of the hayloft of the Villa Giulia is dark and crumbling, only intermittently illuminated by brilliant shafts of daylight that pick out the figures of peasants as they tie up bales of hay and pack them on the backs of horses. Much of the appeal of Robert's picture lay in the contrast between the humbleness of the everyday events that he depicts and the soaring grandeur in which he sets them - the magnificent arches, coffered ceilings and grand statuary that lay waste in the once-great country palace built by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Bartolomeo Ammanati and Giorgio Vasari in the 1550s for the affable, pleasure-loving pontiff, Pope Julius III.
Exterior versus interior, light against dark, aristocratic leisure versus rustic labour, Robert's pair of paintings induces considerable pleasure through the artist's witty play of piquant contrasts. But the present paintings are remarkable too, for their careful observation of daily reality, vigourous, lively handling, and unexcelled state of preservation. Never relined, on their original stretchers and in their original frames, the paintings remain as when they left Robert's easel; indeed, as a recent conservator's examination suggests, they may even be coated with their original varnish.
Robert drew and painted the garden courtyard of the Villa Medici many times, beginning in the late 1750s. The villa, located at the top of the Spanish Steps, had been significantly enlarged in 1540 by the architect Nani di Banco Bigi, before passing four years later into the possession of Cardinal Ricci da Montepulciano. In 1576, the villa was acquired by Cardinal Fernandino de' Medici whose taste for rich Mannerist ornamentation is reflected in the decoration of the famous garden façade. Prior to 1801, when the villa became the permanent home of the French Academy (which it remains to this day), it served as the embassy of the Grand-Dukes of Tuscany. In 1873, the American novelist Henry James on a visit to Rome called the villa 'a fabled, haunted place', perhaps 'the most enchanting place in Rome'. He went on,
'The great façade of the gardens is like an emormous rococo clock-face all incrusted with images and arabesques and tablets. What mornings and afternoons one might spend there, brush in hand, unpreoccupied, untormented, pensioned, satisfied - either persuading one's self that one would be "doing something" in consequence or not caring if one shouldn't be'. (Italian Hours).
Hubert Robert was among the first French painters to recognize the villa's visual charm. The present painting, and a red chalk drawing in the collection of Louis-Antoine Prat (see P. Rosenberg, Passion for Drawing: Poussin to Cezanne, Works from the Prat Collection, 2004, no. 38, pp. 142-3), are both dated 1759 and are among Robert's first representations of the villa, though he continued to depict it in sheets from the Ganay Album (disassembled and sold, Sotheby's, Monaco, 1 December 1989; see, for example, lots 11 & 12), which is datable to 1764-5, Robert's final year in Italy. An oil sketch of the villa (sold, Christie's, New York, 6 April 2006, lot 85) also dates from the end of the artist's Roman sojourn and served as a study for a large painting formerly in the Kraemer collection that was executed after Robert's return to Paris. In each case, Robert was unconcerned with slavishly imitating reality and freely altered both the structure and decorations of the villa in his depictions. An anonymous copy of the present painting, in reverse of the original, is in the Art Institute of Chicago; it is probably based on Janinet's print (see J. Patrice Marandel, Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1976, Chicago, no. 15, p. 26, pl. 1).
The decaying, atmospheric Villa Giulia was also a favourite subject of Robert and it appears in several paintings and drawings from his Roman years. There is red chalk drawing of the hayloft in the Villa Giulia, closely related to our painting and also dated 1759, in the Morgan Library, New York, and another drawing with variations in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valence. Another painting of the stables and loft of similar composition but with significantly different staffage, also dated 1759, is in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, and an almost exact replica of the Paris picture - undated but presumably contemporaneous - is in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg; both derive closely from the present canvas. A third painting (also in the Hermitage) and related drawing (private collection, Lyon) - vertical in format and nocturnal - create a haunting, moody effect, and are probably from several years later. (All of the above mentioned works are reproduced in J.-P. Cuzin and P. Rosenberg, J. H. Fragonard e H. Robert a Roma, Rome, 1990-1, nos. 19-20, pp. 69-70; and Baldine Saint Girons, et. al., Hubert Robert et Saint-Petersbourg. Les commandes de la famille Imperiale et des princes russes entre 1773 et 1802, Valence, 1999, nos. 21-22, pp. 134-7).
Silvain-Raphael Baudouin, the first recorded owner of Robert's paintings, was a distinguished military man and a noted art collector who sold 115 Dutch and Flemish paintings from his picture cabinet to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. Louis-Auguste-Augustin d'Affry was Baudouin's almost exact contemporary, a fellow soldier and connoissueur-collector, who appears to have acquired the pair of Roberts directly from Baudouin in a private transaction at an unknown date. The paintings have remained ever since with d'Affry's descendants.
We are grateful to Joseph Baillio for confirming the attribution. He will be including these pictures in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.
The pictures were executed early in Robert's career, during his decade-long sojourn in Rome - the canvas depicting the 'Palais du Pape Jules' is signed and inscribed 'Romae - 1759' - and Janinet's engravings confirm their Italian subject matter: one depicts the Colonade et jardins du Palais Medicis; the other is set among the Restes du Palais du Pape Jules. Here we can see demonstrated the naturally picturesque sensibility that Robert brought to the creation of his sets of paintings. Both paintings depict famous palaces and popular tourist sites of Renaissance Rome, but the manner in which they are presented provides a series of charming contrasts. In the first, Robert offers a sparkling open-air vision of a terrace outside the Villa Medici on which elegantly dressed tourists promenade, disport themselves in the warm, Mediterranean sunshine, and shelter from the glare beneath parasols and towering umbrella pines. Although two young artists sit on the ground drawing the gardens, they - like Robert himself - were still visitors, not residents, at Villa Medici: the great palace would only become the seat of the French Academy and home to its students in 1801. As was his way, Robert did not hesitate to 'improve' on reality when it suited him, even when depicting a familiar site: in the painting, he altered much of the statuary outside the villa and substituted a garden urn for the famous basin with Giambologna's Mercury.
On the other hand, Robert's interior of the hayloft of the Villa Giulia is dark and crumbling, only intermittently illuminated by brilliant shafts of daylight that pick out the figures of peasants as they tie up bales of hay and pack them on the backs of horses. Much of the appeal of Robert's picture lay in the contrast between the humbleness of the everyday events that he depicts and the soaring grandeur in which he sets them - the magnificent arches, coffered ceilings and grand statuary that lay waste in the once-great country palace built by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Bartolomeo Ammanati and Giorgio Vasari in the 1550s for the affable, pleasure-loving pontiff, Pope Julius III.
Exterior versus interior, light against dark, aristocratic leisure versus rustic labour, Robert's pair of paintings induces considerable pleasure through the artist's witty play of piquant contrasts. But the present paintings are remarkable too, for their careful observation of daily reality, vigourous, lively handling, and unexcelled state of preservation. Never relined, on their original stretchers and in their original frames, the paintings remain as when they left Robert's easel; indeed, as a recent conservator's examination suggests, they may even be coated with their original varnish.
Robert drew and painted the garden courtyard of the Villa Medici many times, beginning in the late 1750s. The villa, located at the top of the Spanish Steps, had been significantly enlarged in 1540 by the architect Nani di Banco Bigi, before passing four years later into the possession of Cardinal Ricci da Montepulciano. In 1576, the villa was acquired by Cardinal Fernandino de' Medici whose taste for rich Mannerist ornamentation is reflected in the decoration of the famous garden façade. Prior to 1801, when the villa became the permanent home of the French Academy (which it remains to this day), it served as the embassy of the Grand-Dukes of Tuscany. In 1873, the American novelist Henry James on a visit to Rome called the villa 'a fabled, haunted place', perhaps 'the most enchanting place in Rome'. He went on,
'The great façade of the gardens is like an emormous rococo clock-face all incrusted with images and arabesques and tablets. What mornings and afternoons one might spend there, brush in hand, unpreoccupied, untormented, pensioned, satisfied - either persuading one's self that one would be "doing something" in consequence or not caring if one shouldn't be'. (Italian Hours).
Hubert Robert was among the first French painters to recognize the villa's visual charm. The present painting, and a red chalk drawing in the collection of Louis-Antoine Prat (see P. Rosenberg, Passion for Drawing: Poussin to Cezanne, Works from the Prat Collection, 2004, no. 38, pp. 142-3), are both dated 1759 and are among Robert's first representations of the villa, though he continued to depict it in sheets from the Ganay Album (disassembled and sold, Sotheby's, Monaco, 1 December 1989; see, for example, lots 11 & 12), which is datable to 1764-5, Robert's final year in Italy. An oil sketch of the villa (sold, Christie's, New York, 6 April 2006, lot 85) also dates from the end of the artist's Roman sojourn and served as a study for a large painting formerly in the Kraemer collection that was executed after Robert's return to Paris. In each case, Robert was unconcerned with slavishly imitating reality and freely altered both the structure and decorations of the villa in his depictions. An anonymous copy of the present painting, in reverse of the original, is in the Art Institute of Chicago; it is probably based on Janinet's print (see J. Patrice Marandel, Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1976, Chicago, no. 15, p. 26, pl. 1).
The decaying, atmospheric Villa Giulia was also a favourite subject of Robert and it appears in several paintings and drawings from his Roman years. There is red chalk drawing of the hayloft in the Villa Giulia, closely related to our painting and also dated 1759, in the Morgan Library, New York, and another drawing with variations in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valence. Another painting of the stables and loft of similar composition but with significantly different staffage, also dated 1759, is in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, and an almost exact replica of the Paris picture - undated but presumably contemporaneous - is in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg; both derive closely from the present canvas. A third painting (also in the Hermitage) and related drawing (private collection, Lyon) - vertical in format and nocturnal - create a haunting, moody effect, and are probably from several years later. (All of the above mentioned works are reproduced in J.-P. Cuzin and P. Rosenberg, J. H. Fragonard e H. Robert a Roma, Rome, 1990-1, nos. 19-20, pp. 69-70; and Baldine Saint Girons, et. al., Hubert Robert et Saint-Petersbourg. Les commandes de la famille Imperiale et des princes russes entre 1773 et 1802, Valence, 1999, nos. 21-22, pp. 134-7).
Silvain-Raphael Baudouin, the first recorded owner of Robert's paintings, was a distinguished military man and a noted art collector who sold 115 Dutch and Flemish paintings from his picture cabinet to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. Louis-Auguste-Augustin d'Affry was Baudouin's almost exact contemporary, a fellow soldier and connoissueur-collector, who appears to have acquired the pair of Roberts directly from Baudouin in a private transaction at an unknown date. The paintings have remained ever since with d'Affry's descendants.
We are grateful to Joseph Baillio for confirming the attribution. He will be including these pictures in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.