An architectural capriccio with figures before the temple of Jupiter at Split; and Architectural capriccio with a fountain and the ruins of the Salona's aqueduct at Split

These two drawings are inspired by etchings by Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721-1820), executed for the Antiquities of Spalato, published in London in 1764 by Robert Adam. Even if the general compositions are the same, Hubert Robert has enliven the scenes with his characteristic washerwomen and shepherds. These watercolors were executed over a red chalk counterproof. The Musée des Beaux-Arts of Besançon has another counterproof of the second drawing (Catala, op.cit., no. 107) and the original red chalk was sold at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13 December 2006, lot 20. The practice of the counterproofing, frequently used in France in the 18th Century, especially by Fragonard and Hubert Robert, enables to multiply the works of arts, to sell them to collectors and amateurs. Worked up by the artist, as the present pair, they regain their status as autonomous drawings. Counterproofs were also “part of a cultural practice of gift and exchange associated with shared artistic activities” in Rome where Fragonard and Robert were pensionnaires at the Académie de France (P. Stein, Fragonard. Drawing triumphant. Works from New York Collections, exh. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016-17, p. 56).