A capriccio of a classical arcade and a column with figures conversing before a statue

Like all of Hubert Robert's paintings of ruins, A capriccio of a classical arcade, and its one-time pendant Drovers and their livestock before a ruined arch and obelisk (lot 85), are not just imaginatively transformed recollections of Italy, but meditations on the relationship of man to nature and the transience of human existence. Weeds sprout out of the crumbling entablature of an ancient arch while peasants graze their cattle beneath it in one of the pictures; in the other, a great arcade -- a noble monument of Roman culture -- has become an architectural skeleton that provides shade from the heat for a washerwoman and her dog.

The Drovers and their livestock before a ruined arch and obelisk is dated 1778, an important year for Robert: that November, Robert would be appointed 'Dessinateur des jardins du roi' with the support of the Comte d'Angiviller. For the next decade he would be instrumental in planning many of the most picturesque gardens in France, among which were Rambouillet, Versailles and the Trianon for the royal family; Moulin-Joli for Claude-Henri Watelet; Ermenonville for the Comte de Girardin; and Mereville for Jean-Joseph de Laborde. After 1778, Robert's duties as royal garden designer occupied much of his time and, as fewer dated or documented paintings by him are known from this period, it would appear that the demands of Crown service diverted his attention from the Italian reveries, such as this work and the painting that immediately follows, that had inspired most of his work during the previous decades.