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Lot Essay
A version of this composition dated 1780 is at Lille, S. Raux, op. cit., no. 69. A small sketch for these compositions is illustrated in S. Raux, op. cit., fig. 69b.
The theme of long galleries occurs in many works executed by Robert from the late 1770s. A drawing dated 1778, similar in composition to the present drawing, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (J. Bean and L. Turcic, 15th-18th French Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986, no. 269), an undated red chalk drawing was formerly with the Slatkin Gallery and another was exhibited by Victor Carlson at the National Gallery of Art, Washington in 1978, Hubert Robert, Drawings & Watercolors, no. 49. The theme re-appears in a picture executed for the Marquis Jean-Joseph de Laborde de Méréville, for whom Robert worked in the late 1770s.
These views are probably inspired by the Grande Galerie at the Louvre which was cleared in 1776 to make way for a Museum. In 1777, Robert was appointed Garde des Tableaux du Roi by comte Charles-Claude Labillarderie d'Angeviller, Directeur des Bâtiments du Roi and a year later moved into an apartment in the Louvre attached to this post. The work on the Grande Galerie was begun in 1785 and part of the Museum opened in 1793. The same year Robert was dismissed from his post. Two years later, Robert was appointed to a committee created 'to accelerate the creation of the Museum'. The present drawing was sold in 1796 to Trou, an architect Robert probably met through his involvement with the Museum. The drawing was sold for a small sum of money, the assignat being so devalued in 1796 (see lot 100).
The theme of long galleries occurs in many works executed by Robert from the late 1770s. A drawing dated 1778, similar in composition to the present drawing, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (J. Bean and L. Turcic, 15th-18th French Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986, no. 269), an undated red chalk drawing was formerly with the Slatkin Gallery and another was exhibited by Victor Carlson at the National Gallery of Art, Washington in 1978, Hubert Robert, Drawings & Watercolors, no. 49. The theme re-appears in a picture executed for the Marquis Jean-Joseph de Laborde de Méréville, for whom Robert worked in the late 1770s.
These views are probably inspired by the Grande Galerie at the Louvre which was cleared in 1776 to make way for a Museum. In 1777, Robert was appointed Garde des Tableaux du Roi by comte Charles-Claude Labillarderie d'Angeviller, Directeur des Bâtiments du Roi and a year later moved into an apartment in the Louvre attached to this post. The work on the Grande Galerie was begun in 1785 and part of the Museum opened in 1793. The same year Robert was dismissed from his post. Two years later, Robert was appointed to a committee created 'to accelerate the creation of the Museum'. The present drawing was sold in 1796 to Trou, an architect Robert probably met through his involvement with the Museum. The drawing was sold for a small sum of money, the assignat being so devalued in 1796 (see lot 100).