Hubert Robert

French, 1733 - 1808

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Ruins of the Church of the Saints-Innocents, Paris

Hubert Robert · 1786/1787 · black chalk on tan paper mounted on card ·  Accession ID  2019.45.20

Hubert Robert, A Roman Capriccio with the Pyramid of Gaius Cestius, 1781 or later, pen and black ink, with brown and gray-brown wash over black chalk counterproof on laid paper, Joseph F. McCrindle Collection, 2009.70.199

A Roman Capriccio with the Pyramid of Gaius Cestius

Hubert Robert · 1781 or later · pen and black ink, with brown and gray-brown wash over black chalk counterproof on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2009.70.199

Hubert Robert, Charitable Ladies, c. 1780/1785, pen and brown ink and watercolor over black chalk on laid paper, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1963.15.25

Charitable Ladies

Hubert Robert · c. 1780/1785 · pen and brown ink and watercolor over black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1963.15.25

A rustic, arched, stone bridge spanning a shallow river nearly fills this horizontal landscape. From low to the ground, we look up into and through a large arch, which occupies the lower half of the picture and frames a view that opens to a wide expanse of calm, pale blue water, wooded green riverbanks, and a misty, distant view of a village and a mountain. The horizon line comes a quarter of the way up the painting, and a smoke-colored cloud formation curves like a backward C against the ice-blue sky above. The bridge structure is made from stacked, sandstone-colored stone blocks to form heavy piers. Vegetation grows on the crumbing bridge and gaps indicate other stones are missing. The bridge’s deck runs across the center of the painting, rising slightly from left to right. Atop it, occupying the top left quadrant of the painting, sits a square stone two-story tower that encloses an arched passage over the bridge’s roadway. Groups of people, small in scale, are positioned on and around the bridge. At the river level, on a platform around a bridge footing, four women do laundry. Two pull sheets from the water and two bend on their knees to wash the linens in the river. They wear long skirts of slate blue, cranberry red, and ochre yellow with pinafores and white blouses rolled up to the elbows, with their hair pinned up. A bearded man in brown trousers, white shirt, and brown hat appears to talk to them. Another woman standing nearby in a dark, slate-gray dress balances a large, dark brown ceramic ewer on her head and reaches to pick up another resting at her feet. Warm yellow light illuminates this scene and the underside of the bridge, and reflects on the river. On the bridge deck above, a brown steer is herded across the bridge by a person wearing a wide brown hat, while three people in red, slate-blue, and white clothing are about to pass through the tower passage on the left. Immediately above them, a woman in a white blouse and head scarf appears at a small balcony with what looks like a red dress draped over it and gestures with an extended arm toward a white cat crouched on a railing below. Another woman to our right, in a brown dress, white blouse, and brown hair, stands at the top of a flight of steps leading up the far side of the tower with her back toward us, and she gazes out at the view. On the water below, a small boat with several people is rowed across the river in the middle distance. In a shadowed area at the foot of the bridge, closer to us, a man stands wearing a pointed hat, blue jacket with buttons, and high boots with a sword tucked under his arm. Behind him, a woman in a dark green dress and kerchief sits on a stone step. Both look toward the scene under the bridge with the washerwomen.
Hubert Robert, The Ponte Salario, c. 1775, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.50

The Ponte Salario

Hubert Robert · c. 1775 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.50

Hubert Robert, Herdsmen Crossing a Waterfall, 1770/1775, red chalk on laid paper, with later framing line in brown ink, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1978.28.1

Herdsmen Crossing a Waterfall

Hubert Robert · 1770/1775 · red chalk on laid paper, with later framing line in brown ink ·  Accession ID  1978.28.1

Hubert Robert, The Peasant Dance, c. 1770/1775, pen and black ink with gray and brown wash and black chalk over a black chalk counterproof, on laid paper, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1963.15.26

The Peasant Dance

Hubert Robert · c. 1770/1775 · pen and black ink with gray and brown wash and black chalk over a black chalk counterproof, on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1963.15.26

Hubert Robert, Ruined Farm, c. 1770/1775, pen and black ink with gray and brown wash, and blue watercolor, over a black chalk counterproof, with black chalk additions, on laid paper, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1963.15.27

Ruined Farm

Hubert Robert · c. 1770/1775 · pen and black ink with gray and brown wash, and blue watercolor, over a black chalk counterproof, with black chalk additions, on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1963.15.27

Hubert Robert, Landscape with a Fallen Tree (Paysage à l'arbre cassé), 1764, etching on laid paper, Katharine Shepard Fund, 2016.43.6

Landscape with a Fallen Tree (Paysage à l'arbre cassé)

Hubert Robert · 1764 · etching on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2016.43.6

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Nella venuta in Roma di Madama Le Comte e dei Signori Watelet e Copette

Franz Edmund Weirotter, Hubert Robert, Marguerite Le Comte, Radel, Étienne de Lavallée-Poussin, Louis de Subleyras · 1764 · bound volume with 32 etchings (including title page and text) on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.110.1

Hubert Robert, The Portrait Bust, 1764, etching on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1992.5.2

The Portrait Bust

Hubert Robert · 1764 · etching on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1992.5.2

Bibliography

1808

  • Le Carpentier, Charles. Notice sur Hubert Robert, peintre, lue à la Société d’ émulation, dans la séance du 1er mai 1808. Rouen, 1808.

1895

  • Gabillot, Claude. Hubert Robert et son temps. Paris, 1895.

1910

  • Nolhac, Pierre de. Hubert Robert (1733–1808). Paris, 1910.

1967

  • Burda, Hubert. Die Ruine in den Bildern Hubert Roberts. Munich, 1967.

1978

  • Carlson, Victor. Hubert Robert: Drawings & Watercolors. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978.

1987

  • Cayeux, Jean de. Hubert Robert et les jardins. Paris, 1987.

1989

  • Cayeux, Jean de, with Catherine Boulot. Hubert Robert. Paris, 1989.

  • Herzog, Günther. Hubert Robert und das Bild im Garten. Worms, 1989.

1990

  • Boulot, Catherine, Jean-Pierre Cuzin, and Pierre Rosenberg. J.H. Fragonard e H. Robert a Roma. Exh. cat. Académie de France, Villa Medici, Rome, 1990.

1992

  • Baillio, Joseph. “Hubert Robert’s Decorations for the Château de Bagatelle.” Journal of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 27 (1992): 149–182.

1995

  • Baillio, Joseph. “Addendum to ‘Hubert Robert’s Decorations for the Château de Bagatelle.’” Journal of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 30 (1995): 103.

1999

  • Saint Girons, Baldine, Lioubov Savinskaïa, et al. Hubert Robert (1733–1808) et Saint Pétersbourg: les commandes de la famille impériale et des princes russes entre 1773 et 1802. Exh. cat. Musée de Valence, Valence, 1999.

2001

  • Baillio, Joseph. “A Hermit in a Garden” by Hubert Robert (1733–1808): A New Acquisition for The Speed Art Museum. Louisville, 2001.

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: 403.