Hubert Robert (Paris 1733-1808)

Although this painting has consistently been sold as the pendant to Figures by a footbridge (lot 52 in this sale) the two works are of slightly different size and executed on different supports, suggesting that they are almost certainly a 'married' pair rather than works that Robert conceived as pendants. Indeed, whereas Figures by a footbridge is signed and dated 1781, the present undated work appears, based on an assessment of its style, to have been painted earlier in Robert's career, perhaps the mid-1760s or early 1770s.

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Hubert Robert being prepared by The Wildenstein Institute.