Editing Hubert Robert

{{Short description|French painter (1733–1808)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Hubert Robert
| image         = Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun - Hubert Robert (1788).jpg
| image_size    = 
| alt           = Portrait of Hubert Robert seated with paint brushes
| caption       = ''[[Portrait of Hubert Robert]]'' by [[Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun|Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun]], 1788
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = 22 May 1733
| birth_place   = Paris, France
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1808|4|15|1733|5|22}}
| death_place   = Paris, France
| spouse        = 
| field         = 
| training      = 
| movement      = 
| works         = 
| patrons       = 
| influenced    = 
| awards        = 
| elected       = 
| website       = 
| bgcolour      = 
}}
'''Hubert Robert''' ({{IPA|fr|ybɛʁ ʁɔbɛʁ}}; 22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French [[Painting|painter]] in the school of [[Romanticism in France|Romanticism]], noted especially for his landscape paintings and [[Capriccio (art)|capricci]], or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.<ref name=re>Jean de Cayeux. "Robert, Hubert." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 13 Jan. 2017</ref>

==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.

==Style and legacy==
[[File:Hubert Robert (French - A Hermit Praying in the Ruins of a Roman Temple - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|200px|''A Hermit Praying in the Ruins of a Roman Temple'']]
The quantity of his work is immense, comprising perhaps one thousand paintings and ten thousand drawings.<ref name="Bailey_2016">Colin B. Bailey, "Hubert Robert & the Joy of Ruins", ''The New York Review of Books'' '''63'''.15 (October 13, 2016), pp. 35–37.</ref> The [[Louvre]] alone contains nine paintings by his hand and specimens are frequently to be met with in provincial museums and private collections. Robert's work has more or less of that scenic character which justified his selection by [[Voltaire]] to paint the decorations of his theatre at Ferney.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

His work was much engraved by the [[Jean-Claude Richard|abbé de Saint-Non]], with whom he had visited [[Naples]] in the company of [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard|Fragonard]] during his early days; in Italy his work has also been frequently reproduced by Chatelain, Linard, [[Le Veau]], and others.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He is noted for the liveliness and point with which he treated the subjects he painted. Equally at ease painting small easel pictures or huge decorations, he worked quickly using an ''[[alla prima]]'' technique.<ref>Hubert Robert Biography, [[National Gallery of Art]] https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1832.html</ref> Along with this incessant activity as an artist, his daring character and many adventures attracted general admiration and sympathy. In the fourth canto of his ''L'Imagination'' [[Jacques Delille]] celebrated Robert's miraculous escape when lost in the catacombs.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

===Robert and picturesque gardens===
[[File:Hubert Robert - Cypresses.jpg|thumb|left|70 px|''Cypresses'' (1773), 300 x 75 cm., [[Hermitage Museum|Hermitage]]]]
[[File:Hubert Robert - Landscape with a Triumphal Column.jpg|thumb|70 px|''Triumphal Column'' (1773), 300 x 74 cm., [[Hermitage Museum|Hermitage]]]]
Enterprising and prolific, Robert also acted in a role similar to that of a modern-day art director, conceptualizing fashionably dilapidated gardens for several aristocratic clients, summarized by his possible intervention at [[Ermenonville]]; there he would have been working with the architect [[Jean-Marie Morel]] for the marquis de Girardin, who was the author of ''Compositions des paysages'' (1777) and had distinct views of his own. In 1786 he began his better documented<ref>Victor Carlson, "Hubert Robert in Rome: Some Pen-and-Wash Drawings" ''Master Drawings'' '''39'''.3 (Autumn 2001, pp. 288-299) p. 291.</ref> collaboration at [[Château de Méréville|Méréville]], with his most significant patron, the financier Jean-Joseph de Laborde, who found [[François-Joseph Bélanger]]'s plans too expensive and perhaps too formal.

Though documents are again lacking, Hubert Robert's name is invariably invoked in connection with [[Marie Antoinette]]'s 'premier architecte' [[Richard Mique]] through several phases of the creation of an informal landscape garden at the [[Petit Trianon]], and the setting of the ''[[petit hameau]]''. Robert's contribution to garden design was not in making practical ground plans for improvements but in providing atmospheric inspiration for the proposed effect.<ref>Compare the role of [[Louis Moreau]] at [[Château de Bagatelle|Bagatelle]].</ref> At Ermenonville and at Méréville "Hubert Robert's paintings both recorded and inspired", according to W.H. Adams:<ref>Adams1979:104</ref> Robert's four large ruin fantasies, painted in 1787 for Méréville<ref>At the [[Art Institute of Chicago]].</ref> may be searched in vain for direct connections with the garden. Hubert's paintings of the Moulin Joly of his friend [[Claude-Henri Watelet]] render the fully-grown atmosphere of a garden that had been under way since 1754. His set of six Italianate landscape panels painted for Bagatelle<ref>At the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].</ref> were not the inspiration for the formal turfed parterre set in the thinned woodlands, designed by Bélanger; the later picturesque extensions of Bagatelle were carried out by its Scottish gardener, William Blaikie.<ref>Joseph Baillio, "Hubert Robert's Decorations for the Château de Bagatelle" ''Metropolitan Museum Journal'' '''27''' (1992), pp. 149–182.</ref> Robert's commissioned painting of the long-delayed rejuvenation of the park at [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]], begun in 1774 with the cutting down of the trees for sale as firewood, is a record of the event, resonant with allegorical meaning.<ref>Paula Rea Radisich, "The King Prunes His Garden: Hubert Robert's Picture of the Versailles Gardens in 1775" ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' '''21'''.4 (Summer 1988), pp. 454–471.</ref> Robert was more certainly responsible for the conception of the grotto and cascades of the 'Baths of Apollo,' tucked within a grove of the chateau's park and built to house [[François Girardon]]'s celebrated sculpture group ''Apollo Attended by Nymphs''.

==Gallery==
===Works on paper===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
File:Capriccio with an Ancient Temple MET DP823635 (cropped).jpg|''Capriccio'' (ca. 1756), watercolor, 56.4 x 41.3&nbsp;cm., [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
File:Hubert Robert - The Oval Fountain in the Gardens of the Villa d'Este, Tivoli - Google Art Project (cropped).jpg|''Oval Fountain in the Villa d'Este Gardens, Tivoli'' (1760), 32.7 x 45&nbsp;cm., [[National Gallery of Art]]
File:Hubert Robert - The Large Staircase - Google Art Project.jpg|''The Large Staircase'' (ca. 1761–65), 45 x 32.3&nbsp;cm., Pen and ink, wash, watercolor, and chalk, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Houston]]
File:Young Artists in the Studio MET DP226754 (cropped).jpg|''Young Artists in the Studio'' (ca.1763-65), re chalk, 35.2 x 41.2&nbsp;cm., [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
File:Robert Arch of Titus.jpg|''Arch of Titus in Rome'' (1760s), watercolor, 35 x 49.5&nbsp;cm., [[Czartoryski Museum]]
File:Artist Sketching a Young Girl MET 1972.118.230 (cropped).jpg|''Artist Sketching a Young Girl'' (ca. 1773), red chalk, 25.5 x 33.8&nbsp;cm., [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
File:Young Women in a Landscape with Architectural Fragments MET 59.23.70.jpg|''Women in Landscape'' (ca. 1773), ink, wash, & chalk, 36.6 x 28.7&nbsp;cm., [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
File:Robert Boat journey.jpg|''Boat Journey'' (1774), sanguine, 28.9 x 36.5&nbsp;cm., [[National Museum in Warsaw]]
File:HRobertBorgheseVase.jpg|''Draughtsman of the Borghese Vase'' (ca. 1775), chalk, 36.5 x 29&nbsp;cm., [[Museu de Belles Arts de València]]
File:Figures in a Colonnade MET DP226757 (cropped).jpg|''Figures in a Colonnade'' (ca. 1780), ink, wash, & chalk, 58.6 x 44 .7&nbsp;cm., [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] 
File:RobertPrison.jpg|''Self Portrait in Prison'' (ca 1793–94), ink, wash, watercolor and chalk, 17.6 x 23.8&nbsp;cm., Galerie Coatalem
</gallery>

===Oil paintings===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
File:Hubert Robert - The Old Bridge - 1957.34.1 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|''The Old Bridge'' (1760), 76.2 x 100.3&nbsp;cm., [[Yale University Art Gallery]]
File:Robert Italian kitchen.jpg|''Italian Kitchen'' (ca. 1760–67),  60 x 75&nbsp;cm., [[National Museum in Warsaw]]
File:Orator in Prison (Hubert Robert) - Nationalmuseum - 19613 (cropped).tif|''Orator in Prison'' (1760s), 48 x 38&nbsp;cm., [[Nationalmuseum]]
File:Hubert Robert - View of Ripetta - WGA19603.jpg|''[[A View of Ripetta]]'' (1766), 119 x 145&nbsp;cm., [[Beaux-Arts de Paris]]
File:Hubert Robert - The Fire of Rome - Google Art Project.jpg|''The Fire of Rome'' (ca. 1771), 75.5 x 93&nbsp;cm., [[Museum of modern art André Malraux - MuMa|Musée d'art moderne André Malraux]]
File:Hubert Robert - L'École de chirurgie en construction (cropped).jpg|''École de Chirurgie Under Construction'' (1773), 76 x 91.5&nbsp;cm., [[Musée Carnavalet]]
File:Hubert Robert - 1773 - Finding of the Laocoon.jpg|''The Finding of the [[Laocoon]]'' (1773), 119.3 x 162.5&nbsp;cm., [[Virginia Museum of Fine Arts]]
File:Hubert Robert - Les Cascatelles de Tivoli - PPP2547 - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris (cropped).jpg|''The Tivoli Waterfalls'' (1776), 50 x 74&nbsp;cm., [[Petit Palais]]
File:Hubert Robert - Studio of an Antiquities Restorer in Rome - Google Art Project (cropped).jpg|''Studio of an Antiquities Restorer in Rome'' (1783), 101 x 143&nbsp;cm., [[Toledo Museum of Art]]
File:Hubert Robert - Flight of Galatea.jpg|''Flight of [[Galatea (mythology)|Galatea]]'' (mid 1780s), 50 x: 42&nbsp;cm., [[Hermitage Museum]]
File:The Shipwreck (1780–1790), oil on canvas, 321.6 x 199.5 cm., Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.jpg|''Shipwreck'' (1780s), 322 x 199&nbsp;cm., [[Worcester Art Museum]]
File:Hubert Robert - L incendie de l Opera vue d'une croisée de l Académie de peinture place du Louvre.jpg|''The Fire of the Paris Opera'' (1781), 123.5 × 171&nbsp;cm., private collection
File:Hubert Robert - The Landing Place - Art Institute of Chicago - 1787-88.jpg|''The Landing Place'' (1787–88), 255 x 223&nbsp;cm., [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
File:Hubert Robert - The Fountains - Art Institute of Chicago - 1787-88.jpg|''The Fountains'' (1787–88), 255 x 221&nbsp;cm., [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
File:Hubert Robert - The Old Temple - 1900.382 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|''The Old Temple'' (1787–88), 255 x 223&nbsp;cm., [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
File:Hubert Robert - The Obelisk - Art Institute of Chicago - 1787-88.jpg|''The Obelisk'' (1787–88), 255 x 223&nbsp;cm., [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
File:Hubert Robert - Fantastic View of Tivoli - 524-1955 - Saint Louis Art Museum.jpg|''Fantastic View of Tivoli'' (1789), 241.3 x 190.8&nbsp;cm., [[Saint Louis Art Museum]] 
File:The Bastille in the first days of its demolition, by Hubert Robert (cropped).jpg|''[[The Bastille During the First Days of its Demolition]]'' (1789), 96 x 135&nbsp;cm., [[Musée Carnavalet]]
File:Hubert Robert - Neglected Statue.jpg|''Neglected Statue'' (1790s), 40 x 31&nbsp;cm., [[Hermitage Museum]]
File:Hubert Robert 005.jpg|''[[Girls Dancing Around an Obelisk]]'' (1798), 120 x 99&nbsp;cm., [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]]
File:Hubert Robert - Projet d'aménagement de la Grande Galerie du Louvre (1796).JPG|''[[Project for the Transformation of the Grande Galerie du Louvre]]'' (1796), 115 x 145&nbsp;cm., [[Louvre]]
File:Louvre-peinture-francaise-p1020324.jpg|''Imaginary View of the Grand Gallery of the Louvre in Ruins'' (1796), 114.5 x 146&nbsp;cm., [[Louvre]]
File:Hubert Robert - Römische Phantasievedute - 2537 - Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.jpg|''Roman Capriccio'' (1798 ), 94 x 117&nbsp;cm., [[Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe]]
File:Hubert Robert - Architectural Fantasy - 37.104 - Rhode Island School of Design Museum.jpg|''Architectural Fantasy'' (ca. 1802–08),114 x 147.8&nbsp;cm., [[Rhode Island School of Design Museum]]
File:Hubert Robert (French - Demolition of the Château of Meudon - Google Art Project.jpg|''Demolition of the Château of Meudon'' (1806), 113.3 x 146.8&nbsp;cm., [[Getty Museum]] 
</gallery>

==References, notes and sources==
;References and notes
{{reflist|2}}
;Sources
[[File:Hubert Robert - The Arc de Triomphe and the Theatre of Orange - WGA19600.jpg|thumb|''The Arc de Triomphe and the Theatre of Orange'', 1787 (Louvre), part of the ''[[Principal Monuments of France]]'' series]]
<!--[[File:Hubert Robert 005.jpg|thumb|''Classical Ruins'']]-->
<!--extra image: either hide, find use, or put in a gallery[[File:Robert Villa Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|250px|''Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati'', watercolor painting, 1762 ([[Czartoryski Museum]])]]-->
<!--This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add references to this article, please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php -->

<!--these are useless antique references:*C Blanc, ''Histoire des peintres''
* Villot, ''Notice des tableaux du Louvre''
* Julius Meyer, ''Geschichte moderner Franzözischer Malerei'-->
* Adams, William Howard, ''The French Garden 1500–1800'' (New York: Braziller) 1979.
* Huisman, Philippe,'' French Watercolours of the 18th Century'' (1969) London, Thames and Hudson {{ISBN|978-0-500-23105-0}}
* Wiebenson, Dora, ''The Picturesque Garden in France'' (Princeton University Press) 1978.
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Robert, Hubert|volume=23|page=402}}
*Sarah Catala. ''Les Hubert Robert de Besançon''. Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2013 [catalogue raisonné of drawings from public library and fine art museum of Besançon].

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*Joconde - Catalogue des Collections des Musées de France [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_98=AUTR&VALUE_98=ROBERT%20Hubert&DOM=All&REL_SPECIFIC=1 www.culture.gouv.fr (Ministère de la culture et de la communication)] — List of the work of Robert (315 entries), French.

{{Hubert Robert}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robert, Hubert}}
[[Category:1733 births]]
[[Category:1808 deaths]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]
[[Category:18th-century French painters]]
[[Category:French male painters]]
[[Category:19th-century French painters]]
[[Category:Painters of ruins]]
[[Category:Romantic painters]]
[[Category:19th-century French male artists]]
[[Category:18th-century French male artists]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture]]