.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In 1754, Hubert Robert moved to Rome in the entourage of the Comte de Stainville, who had been appointed French Ambassador to the Holy See. The painter would remain there for the next eleven years. By 1759, Robert had been made pensionnaire of the Académie de France in Rome, then under the directorship of Charles-Joseph Natoire. In this he was supported by Madame de Pompadour's brother, the marquis de Marigny, directeur des bâtiments du Roi and future foreign minister. This level of patronage ensured his success in the Eternal City, which at that time was also home to Robert's friend, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, as well as the architectural painters Giovanni Paolo Panini and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Under the influence of these latter two artists, Robert developed his own interpretation of the Roman architectural capriccio. For his mastery of the genre, Denis Diderot famously dubbed him 'Robert des ruines'.
Robert’s passion for ancient monuments was not exclusively reserved for Italy. Upon his return to France, the artist began to paint the numerous survivals from Antiquity that populated his homeland. As early as 1771, he painted the Temple of Diana of Nîmes in a work formerly in the Rohatyn collection (sold Sotheby’s, New York, 14 October 2020, lot 17), and in 1783 he spent time in Languedoc to satisfy a commission from the Archbishop of Narbonne. In these decades, Robert would produce several canvases in which he poetically combined antique monuments, culminating in one of his most prestigious commissions, the Réunion des plus célèbre monuments antiques de la France, in which he brought together famous ruins from Provence and Languedoc to create a remarkable capriccio for the Russian Grand Duke Paul Petrovich (1754-1801), son of Emperor Peter III and Catherine the Great, and his second wife, the Grand Duchess Marie Feodorovna (1759-1828; born Sophia Dorothea of Wurttemberg; Palais de Pavlovsk; see G. Faroult and C. Voiriot, eds., Hubert Robert, 1733-1808: Un peintre visionnaire, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2016, p. 53, fig. 15).
The reception of Robert’s painting for Petrovitch must have been very favorable when it was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1785. Robert frequently produced multiple versions of his most successful compositions to meet the high demand for his paintings, and such was the case here. It is likely that patron of the present lot commissioned it after seeing the painting at the Paris Salon, though it is equally possibly that the work predates the Petrovitch painting. Indeed, at the time of the 1992 sale, Joseph Baillio dated the work to circa 1780-85.
In both the present work and the Petrovitch version, Robert gathers together several Roman monuments located in and around the southern French cities of Nîmes, Orange, and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Here, from left to right we see the ruins of the Amphitheater (circa 100 AD; not included in the Petrovich composition) and the Maison Carrée (early 1st century AD) of Nîmes; the Pont du Gard aqueduct located about 25 km northeast of Nímes (circa 19 BC); the Mausoleum of the Julii (40-20 BC) and Triumphal Arch (circa 20 AD) at Glanum, located south of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (about 40 km northeast of Nîmes); the Triumphal Arch (27 BC-14 AD) in Orange, Vaucluse; and the Temple of Diana (1st century AD) at Nîmes. Following his usual custom, Robert populates his scene with numerous figures who explore the ruins, strolling and engaging in conversations.
Other versions which similarly combine the Antique monuments of Nîmes, Orange and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence include paintings in the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (inv. no. B.131), formerly in the collection of Marczell von Nemes, and a smaller version, which sold at Drouot, Paris, on 14 May 1911, lot 25. Robert also produced other works in which only one or a few of the French ruins appear, such as those sold at Christie’s, Paris, 14 September 2016, lot 51 and Christie’s, Paris, 15 September 2020, lot 126.
Robert’s success with this imagery would reach its apogee in 1786, when King Louis XVI commissioned him to paint `four paintings representing the principal monuments of France' for the dining room of the King’s small apartments at the Château de Fontainebleau (today housed in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. nos. 7647-50). The four large canvases that Robert produced for the king employ the same buildings seen in the present lot, portrayed from the same viewpoints but organized by location. The king’s paintings were exhibited in the 1787 Salon, and only added to the demand for paintings by Robert des ruines that included these national treasures.
Robert’s passion for ancient monuments was not exclusively reserved for Italy. Upon his return to France, the artist began to paint the numerous survivals from Antiquity that populated his homeland. As early as 1771, he painted the Temple of Diana of Nîmes in a work formerly in the Rohatyn collection (sold Sotheby’s, New York, 14 October 2020, lot 17), and in 1783 he spent time in Languedoc to satisfy a commission from the Archbishop of Narbonne. In these decades, Robert would produce several canvases in which he poetically combined antique monuments, culminating in one of his most prestigious commissions, the Réunion des plus célèbre monuments antiques de la France, in which he brought together famous ruins from Provence and Languedoc to create a remarkable capriccio for the Russian Grand Duke Paul Petrovich (1754-1801), son of Emperor Peter III and Catherine the Great, and his second wife, the Grand Duchess Marie Feodorovna (1759-1828; born Sophia Dorothea of Wurttemberg; Palais de Pavlovsk; see G. Faroult and C. Voiriot, eds., Hubert Robert, 1733-1808: Un peintre visionnaire, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2016, p. 53, fig. 15).
The reception of Robert’s painting for Petrovitch must have been very favorable when it was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1785. Robert frequently produced multiple versions of his most successful compositions to meet the high demand for his paintings, and such was the case here. It is likely that patron of the present lot commissioned it after seeing the painting at the Paris Salon, though it is equally possibly that the work predates the Petrovitch painting. Indeed, at the time of the 1992 sale, Joseph Baillio dated the work to circa 1780-85.
In both the present work and the Petrovitch version, Robert gathers together several Roman monuments located in and around the southern French cities of Nîmes, Orange, and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Here, from left to right we see the ruins of the Amphitheater (circa 100 AD; not included in the Petrovich composition) and the Maison Carrée (early 1st century AD) of Nîmes; the Pont du Gard aqueduct located about 25 km northeast of Nímes (circa 19 BC); the Mausoleum of the Julii (40-20 BC) and Triumphal Arch (circa 20 AD) at Glanum, located south of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (about 40 km northeast of Nîmes); the Triumphal Arch (27 BC-14 AD) in Orange, Vaucluse; and the Temple of Diana (1st century AD) at Nîmes. Following his usual custom, Robert populates his scene with numerous figures who explore the ruins, strolling and engaging in conversations.
Other versions which similarly combine the Antique monuments of Nîmes, Orange and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence include paintings in the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (inv. no. B.131), formerly in the collection of Marczell von Nemes, and a smaller version, which sold at Drouot, Paris, on 14 May 1911, lot 25. Robert also produced other works in which only one or a few of the French ruins appear, such as those sold at Christie’s, Paris, 14 September 2016, lot 51 and Christie’s, Paris, 15 September 2020, lot 126.
Robert’s success with this imagery would reach its apogee in 1786, when King Louis XVI commissioned him to paint `four paintings representing the principal monuments of France' for the dining room of the King’s small apartments at the Château de Fontainebleau (today housed in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. nos. 7647-50). The four large canvases that Robert produced for the king employ the same buildings seen in the present lot, portrayed from the same viewpoints but organized by location. The king’s paintings were exhibited in the 1787 Salon, and only added to the demand for paintings by Robert des ruines that included these national treasures.