National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Ponte Salario
  • Overview
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Hubert Robert, known as "Robert of the Ruins," spent eleven years as a student in Rome from 1754 until 1765. During his sojourn he studied at the French Academy, but dedicated most of his energy to sketching the Eternal City and the Roman campagna. He reworked the ideas recorded in his sketchbooks, in drawings, and paintings throughout his career.

In The Old Bridge, Robert used an ancient monument as the basis for his modern composition. The Ponte Salario, which was built in the sixth century, is shown from below. The arch of the bridge, illuminated by a soft pink glow, separates foreground from background space. Through the bridge we see the Roman countryside in the distance. The crumbling pier on the far left has been converted into a contemporary barn.

Robert has combined the grandeur of ancient Rome with the anecdotal. For example, the young man on the right bank admires the washerwoman opposite, while the old woman on the pier entices her cat to return. Robert, by linking present and past under the warm light of the Italian sun, reminds us that bridges are emblems of the passage of time, thus evoking a nostalgia for the glory of ancient Rome.

Inscription

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Marks and Labels

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Provenance

Jean Frédéric Perregaux [1744-1808], Paris and Viry-Châtillon;[1] by inheritance to his daughter, the maréchale duchesse de Raguse [1779-1855, née Anne Marie Hortense Perregaux], Paris and Viry-Châtillon;[2] (her estate sale, Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs, Paris, 14-15 December 1857, no. 42); Madame Louis Stern, Paris, by 1911; (sale, Galerie George Petit, Paris, 22 April 1929, no. 19); (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York); sold 23 December 1946 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] According to the preface of the catalogue of his daughter's estate sale in 1857, the late 18th century French school paintings in the sale had been acquired by Perregaux from the artists themselves. A Swiss-born banker who had married a French woman and was the first regent of the Banque de France, the collector owned major works by Boilly, Greuze, Vernet, and Vigée Le Brun, among others. The NGA painting was included in the postmortem inventory of Perregaux's collection, drawn up on 25 February 1808 by the commissaire-priseur Jean Baptiste Théodore Sensier; it was one of several decorating the salon of Perregaux's townhouse at 9, rue du Mont Blanc and was valued at 120 francs: "Item, un autre [paysage] par Robert représentant un pont cadre de bois doré Prisé cent vingt frances, ci.....120" (Archives nationales de France, Paris: Étude X, liasse 882).

[2] She was the widow of one of Napoleon's marshals, Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont (1774-1852). Her father left her a considerable fortune, part ownership of his bank, and part of his art collection. The 17th century Dutch paintings in the collection were bequeathed to her brother, Alphonse Claude Charles Bernardin Perregaux (1785-1841). For the lives of Perregaux and his daughter, see Paul de Pury, "Jean-Frédéric Perregaux," Musée Neuchâtelois n.s. 6 (1919): 7-12; Jean Lhomer, Le banquier Perregaux et sa fille, la duchesse de Raguse, Paris, 1926; Romuald Szramkiewicz, Les Régents et censeurs de la Banque de France nommés sous le Consultat et l'Empire, Geneva, 1974: 311-318; Geoffrey De Bellaigue, "Jean Frédéric Perregaux, the Englishman's Best Friend," Antologia di Belle Arti 29-30 (1986): 80-90.

Exhibition History

1931
Eighteenth-Century French Art, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1931, no. 31.
1934
Exhibition of French Painting from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Day, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1934, no. 53, repro.
1935
Paintings and Drawings by Hubert Robert, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1935, no. 32.
2005
The Splendor of Ruins in French Landscape Painting 1630-1800, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2005, no. 30, repro.

Bibliography

1910
Nolhac, Pierre de. Hubert Robert. Paris, 1910: 127.
1911
Guiffrey, Jean. "La Collection de Mme Louis Stern." Les Arts (November 1911): 22, repro.
1922
Gillet, Louis. "Hubert Robert, peintre des ruines." L'Illustration (2 December 1922): unpaginated, color repro.
1929
"Les Ventes." Le Bulletin de l'Art Ancien et Moderne, no. 759 (June 1929): 257, 259, repro.
1931
"The Art Market." Parnassus III, no. II (February 1931): repro. 27.
1934
"En dernière heure, d'Hubert Robert à Seurat." Le Bulletin de l'Art Ancien et Moderne, no. 802 (January 1934): repro. 24.
1935
"40 Paintings by Hubert-Robert in Loan Show." Art Digest (1 April 1935): 15, repro.
1935
Morsell, Mary. "Notable Canvases By Hubert Robert At Wildenstein's." The Art News (23 March 1935): 1, 4, repro.
1948
Wildenstein and Company. French XVIII Century Paintings. New York, 1948: 4.
1951
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 230, no. 103, repro.
1952
Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 118,127, repro. 121.
1952
Walker, John. "Your National Gallery of Art After 10 Years." National Geographic Magazine 101 no. 1 (January 1952): 74, 81, repro.
1956
Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth-Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 67, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 236, fig. 21.
1959
Cooke, Hereward Lester. French Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Four in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 40, color repro.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 371, repro.
1962
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Treasures from the National Gallery of Art, New York, 1962: 114, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 318, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 115.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:324, color repro.
1967
Burda, Hubert. Die Ruine in den Bildern Hubert Roberts. Munich, 1967: 45-46, fig. 32.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 102, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 306, repro.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 338-339, fig. 305.
1979
Watson, Ross. National Gallery of Art. London, 1979: 88, pl. 76, color repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 341, no. 462, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 353, repro.
1991
Hubert Robert 1733-1808: und die Brücken von Paris. Exh. cat. Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, 1991-1992: 94, under no. 51, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 174, repro.
2005
The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 59, fig. 57, 73 (not in the exhibition).
2009
Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 86, 404-409, color repro.

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