Editing Hubert Robert (section)

==Biography==

===Early years===
Hubert Robert was born in Paris in 1733. His father, Nicolas Robert, was in the service of [[François Joseph de Choiseul, marquis de Stainville|François-Joseph de Choiseul, marquis de Stainville]] a leading [[diplomat]] from [[Duchy of Lorraine|Lorraine]]. Young Robert finished his studies with the [[Jesuits]] at the [[Collège de Navarre]] in 1751 and entered the atelier of the sculptor [[Michel-Ange Slodtz]] who taught him design and perspective but encouraged him to turn to painting. In 1754 he left for Rome in the train of [[Étienne François, duc de Choiseul|Étienne-François de Choiseul]], son of his father's employer, who had been named French ambassador and would become a Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Louis XV in 1758.

===In Rome===
[[File:1760 Robert Das Atelier des Künstlers anagoria.JPG|thumb|260px|''The Artist's Studio'', 1760, [[Städelsches Kunstinstitut]]]]
He spent fully eleven years in Rome, a remarkable length of time; after the young artist's official residence at the [[French Academy in Rome]] ran out, he supported himself by works he produced for visiting connoisseurs like the [[Jean-Claude Richard|abbé de Saint-Non]], who took Robert to Naples in April 1760 to visit the ruins of [[Pompeii]].  The [[marquis de Marigny]], director of the ''[[Bâtiments du Roi]]'' kept abreast of his development in correspondence with [[Natoire]], director of the French Academy, who urged the ''pensionnaires'' to sketch out-of-doors, from nature: Robert needed no urging; drawings from his sketchbooks document his travels: [[Villa d'Este]], [[Caprarola]].

The contrast between the ruins of [[ancient Rome]] and the life of his time excited his keenest interest.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He worked for a time in the studio of [[Giovanni Paolo Panini]], whose influence can be seen in the ''Vue imaginaire de la galerie du Louvre en ruine'' (''illustration''). Robert spent his time in the company of young artists in the circle of [[Giovanni Battista Piranesi|Piranesi]], whose ''[[Capriccio (painting)|capricci]]'' of romantically overgrown ruins influenced him so greatly that he gained the nickname ''Robert des ruines''.<ref>Robert possessed no fewer than twenty-five of Pannini's canvases. (Jean Cailleux, "Introduction to the Method of Hubert Robert"''The Burlington Magazine'' '''109''' No. 767, February 1967), p. i.<!-- i is correct--></ref> The albums of sketches and drawings he assembled in Rome supplied him with motifs that he worked into paintings throughout his career.<ref>Sarah Catala, "La matérialité fonctionnelle, Quelques refléxions sur les pratiques de dessin d'Hubert Robert", in exh. cat. ''Hubert Robert, un peintre visionnaire'', Paris, éditions du musée du Louvre / Somogy, p. 65-72.</ref>

He is reported to have carved his name into the walls of the [[Colosseum]] in 1767.<ref name="WaPo">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/07/08/colosseum-tourist-vandalized-graffiti/ |title=A not-so-brief history of the Colosseum for confused vandals|last=Salcedo |first=Andrea |newspaper=Washington Post |date= 9 July 2023}}</ref>

===In Paris===
[[File:The Artist in His Cell, by Hubert Robert (1793) Grey ink, grey wash and watercolor over black chalk, 22.7 x 32.7 cm., Musée Carnavalet, Paris.jpg|thumb|260px|''The Artist in His Cell'' (1793), ink, wash, watercolor, and chalk, 22.7 x 32.7 cm., [[Musée Carnavalet]]]]
His success on his return to Paris in 1765 was rapid: the following year he was received by the [[Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture]], with a Roman capriccio, ''The Port of Rome, ornamented with different Monuments of Architecture, Ancient and Modern.''<ref>''Le port de Rome, orné de différens Monumens d'Architecture ancien et moderne''.<!--the original spelling is without ts--></ref> Robert's first exhibition at the [[Salon of 1767]], consisting of thirteen paintings and a number of drawings, prompted [[Denis Diderot]] to write: "The ideas which the ruins awake in me are grand." Robert subsequently showed work at every Salon until [[Salon of 1802|1802]].<ref name="Bailey_2016"/> He was successively appointed "Designer of the King's Gardens", "Keeper of the King's Pictures" and "Keeper of the Museum and Councilor to the Academy".<ref>''Dessinateur des Jardins du Roi, Garde des tableaux du Roi, and Garde du Museum et conseiller à l'Academie''</ref>

Robert was arrested in October 1793, during the [[French Revolution]].<ref>18 [[brumaire]] An II</ref> During the ten months of his detention at Sainte-Pélagie and Saint-Lazare he made many drawings, painted at least 53 canvases, and painted numerous vignettes of prison life on plates.<ref name="Bailey_2016"/> He was freed one week after the fall of [[Robespierre]].<ref>He was released 18 [[thermidor]] 1794.</ref> Robert narrowly escaped the [[guillotine]] when through error another prisoner with a similar name was guillotined in his place.<ref>Histoire de Paris, Héron de Villefosse, Editions Grasset (Paris), 1955, pg 181</ref>

Subsequently, he was placed on the committee of five in charge of the new national museum at the [[Palais du Louvre]].

The Revolution also resulted in the destruction of some of Robert's work; his painting ''Péché Cardinal'' (ca.1799) is one that is thought to be lost or destroyed in a fire.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} Robert had designed the decorations for a little theatre in the new wing at the location of the current staircase Gabriel in the [[Palace of Versailles]]. Designed to seat about 500, this theatre was built from the summer of 1785 and opened in early 1786. It was intended to serve as an ordinary court theatre, replacing the Theatre of the Princes Court which was too old and too small, but was destroyed during the time of [[Louis Philippe I|Louis Philippe]]. A [[watercolour]] of Robert's design is in the National Archives in Paris.<ref>A colour print of a detail of the design is mounted in Huisman, p88.</ref>

Robert died of a stroke on 15 April 1808.