Ancient Ruins, After Hubert Robert 19th Century

Ancient ruins, people in front of a statue of Abundance.
Oil on canvas 19th century after the work of Hubert Robert exhibited at the Louvre Museum.
On the back an illegible inscription on the frame.
With frame 54x47 cm

"O the beautiful, the sublime ruins! [...] Time stops for those who admire. How little I have lived! how little my youth lasted! [...] The ideas that the ruins awaken in me are great. Everything is annihilated, everything perishes, everything passes. There is only the world that lasts. How old is this world! From where I look, the objects around me announce an end to me and resign me to the one that awaits me, what is my ephemeral existence, in comparison to that of this rock that awaits me. sinking, of this valley which is hollowing out, of this forest which is tottering, of these masses hanging above my head and which are shaking? I see the marble of the tombs falling into dust and I do not want to die "Diderot! , Salon of 1767.

Painter of architecture and noble ruins, Hubert Robert (1733–1808) saw his name associated with the history of the Louvre museum of which he was the curator. An accomplished draftsman, artist of the Enlightenment, member of the Royal Academy and exhibitor at the Salon, Hubert Robert was a fashionable painter in the 1770s. Faithful to reality, he nevertheless gave the landscape and architecture an undeniable picturesque dimension (and sometimes imaginary) which prefigures romantic sensitivity. Born in a privileged Parisian environment, Hubert Robert received a literate education. During his studies, his aptitude for drawing was noticed and he apprenticed in the workshop of a sculptor. Thanks to connections in aristocratic circles, he left for Italy. Hubert Robert remained in Rome for around ten years, until his return to Paris in 1765. During this period, he had the privilege of becoming a resident at the Académie de France in Rome, where he became friends with the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard and frequented the workshop of the engraver Piranèse. Hubert Robert is fascinated by ancient Roman palaces, picturesque views and ancient ruins (especially in Pompeii), which he visits and draws. Hubert Robert's particularity is to draw on the motif, in front of the architectures of the past. He developed a great technical knowledge of this major art and its decoration. The artist wants to be close to reality, but he always introduces a few fantasies, a few rereadings, into his works. The artist likes the collisions between eras. His highly appreciated architectural drawings will be an important source of income in his career. Back in France, Hubert Robert presented his aesthetics of ruin to the Royal Academy, and was approved and received as an “architectural painter” (but he was colloquially nicknamed “Robert of the Ruins”). He exhibited at the Salon, where Diderot admired his works, and became a recognized artist. Having become a designer of the gardens of King Louis XVI, Hubert Robert notably helped with the design of the Queen's hamlet at Versailles. The protean artist multiplies honorary functions, in particular that of Guard of the king's paintings at the Museum (Louvre). In this context, he planned architectural transformations, immortalized in some of his works. The revolution put an abrupt end to this ascent. Imprisoned, Hubert Robert was only released after the fall of Robespierre and returned to one of his main functions: curator of the Louvre museum. He held this important position until 1802. He died six years later and remains considered today as one of the principal French painters of the French 18th century.