Hubert ROBERT (1733-1808)

Lot 264
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Estimation :
60000 - 80000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 69 000EUR
Hubert ROBERT (1733-1808)
Caprice of ancient ruins, animated by seven figures, with the Pyramid of Caius Cestius About 1787 96 x 145,5 cm. Oil on canvas (probably early 20th century). The canvas marks, in two places, a slight vertical bulge, without loss of material, a few centimeters thick, about forty centimeters high and three centimeters wide. The first is located at 15 centimeters from the left margin, the second at 70cm. Presented in a gilded and carved wood frame in the Louis XVI style: - Most probably Louis Le Peletier de Mortefontaine (1730-1799), provost of the merchants of Paris - Most probably installed in the castle of Mortefontaine (Oise); - According to the family tradition, acquired by the grandfather of the current owners in a public sale, at the beginning of the years 1930, offering works belonging to the family of Gramont, owner of Mortefontaine; - Then by descent, private collection, Paris. Our caprice is quintessential of the style of the one who was nicknamed "Robert of the Ruins", a brilliant continuator of the work of Gian Paolo Pannini. The eye wanders through a superb disorder composed of entanglements of ancient architectural elements, capitals, columns, bas-reliefs, statues with broken arms, in the middle of which three Roman soldiers and a figure dressed in a timeless cloak mysteriously converse. This figure seems so much out of another era that one could almost see the painter giving posing instructions to costumed models. In the distance, the tired but majestic silhouette of the pyramid of Caius Cestius, praetor and tribune of the plebs, whom Robert could admire during his ten years in Rome. Our painting forms a pair with another architectural caprice (private collection, Artcurial sale, 27 March 2015, lot 159). The family tradition of the present owners keeps the memory that this pair (as well as another, once in the family) was part of the former collection of Louis Le Peletier de Mortefontaine (1730-1799). This great servant of the State, intendant of La Rochelle and then Provost of the Merchants of Paris, whom Miromesnil described as a popular and wise intendant, having "spirit, knowledge, zeal, honor, probity, and sometimes a little lightness", was above all a fine collector. He was a friend of Robert, who frequented the same Masonic lodge of the Nine Sisters, and he made him work for his castle of Mortefontaine, where Vigée-Le Brun, Vaudreuil, Brongniart, the Abbé Delille, etc. were received. In the cabinet of paintings of his hotel, rue Neuve de Nazareth, described in 1787 by Thiéry in his Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris (pp. 601-604), his collection already includes two pairs of paintings by the artist, ours being perhaps one of them. Unless it is one of the two "païsages et architectures" mentioned in the inventory of transfer of the furniture of the castle of Mortefontaine, on December 1, 1790. *Also spelled Le Pelletier de Morfontaine.
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