Capriccio of classical sculptures with a group listening to an orator

Details

Hubert Robert (Paris 1733-1808)
Capriccio of classical sculptures with a group listening to an orator
signed 'HUBERTI/ROBERTI.' (in the cartouche on the altar, lower left)
black chalk, pen and black ink, watercolour
19¾ x 16½ in. (52 x 41.3 cm.)

Provenance

L'Hotel George V, Paris, 29 May 1969, lot 72.
with Galerie Cailleux, Paris (their stamp, not in Lugt).

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Lot Essay

The present watercolour, like the previous lot, was executed late in the artist's career and presents a picturesque capriccio of sculptures which Robert had studied during his period in Rome. From left to right the statues include a moumental marble krater, perhaps that at the Campo Santo in Pisa (P. Bober & R. Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists & Antique Sculpture, London, 1986, no.91); a monumental foot, perhaps intended to be that of Constantine in the Capitoline Museum, Rome; and one of the two Dioscori, inscribed 'OPUS/PRAXITELIS'.

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