2006.17 Hubert Robert, View of the Gardens at the Villa Mattei

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The leading landscape artist in France during the final decades of the 18th century, Hubert Robert was a painter whose activity straddled the great divide represented by the French Revolution. Like a few others of such a long lifespan, he also managed in some ways to bridge the gap between neoclassicism and romanticism. A prolific draftsman and painter, his images of the ruined classical monuments of ancient Rome earned him the moniker “Robert des Ruines.” When he returned to Paris, he brought with him this fascination with the derelict and obsolete structures of the past, observing (and sometimes imagining) the demolition of Paris’s historic buildings.

The large and masterful red chalk drawing View and Gardens at the Villa Mattei dates to the period when Robert was traveling in Italy with his fellow artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard and their patron, the wealthy connoisseur the Abbé Saint-Non. It represents the Villa Mattei, today known as the Villa Celimontana, built in the Roman countryside during the Renaissance era. Robert made at least three drawings of the Villa Mattei, of which this example is the only one known to survive. The others are recorded only by a counterproof (Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie, Besançon) and by a print commissioned by Saint-Non after a lost drawing. The present drawing is a fully developed studio drawing, no doubt based on sketches that Robert made at the site but intended as a finished, self-sufficient work of art rather than a study or preparatory sketch. Such drawings were much prized by 18th-century collectors.

Adapted from

Heather MacDonald and William B. Jordan, in Mind's Eye: Masterworks on Paper from David to Cézanne, eds. Olivier Meslay and William B. Jordan (Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 2014) 20.

NOTES

Created 1761

INCOMPLETE----FINISH IF TIME (object in storage)

Additional info from Mind's Eye: bibliography Flavia Ormond Fine Arts 2005, cat.10 (entry by Victor Carlson).

Credit line- Dallas Museum of Art, fractional gift of Charlene and Tom Marsh

Checked Piction

Mind's Eye, page 20

Authors- HMcD and WBJ

Hubert Robert French, 1733–1808

view of the gardens at the villa mattei, 1761

Red chalk on paper, 13¾ × 20⅝ in. (349 × 524 mm)

Inscribed lower left: Villa Mattei

Dallas Museum of Art, fractional gift of Charlene and Tom Marsh, 2006.17

Catalogue essays

Artist/designers

Robert, Hubert (French, 1733 - 1808)

Cultures

Geography

Place of origin and Depicted location: Rome (Italy): TGN: 7000874

Process/materials

red chalk on paper

Historical periods

1761

Individuals

Subject terms

drawing

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WEB RESOURCES

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles~Learn more about the life and work of Hubert Robert.

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Apply to objects where number equals 2006.17

General Description

The leading landscape artist in France during the final decades of the 18th century, Hubert Robert was a painter whose activity straddled the great divide represented by the French Revolution. Like a few others of such a long lifespan, he also managed in some ways to bridge the gap between neoclassicism and romanticism. A prolific draftsman and painter, his images of the ruined classical monuments of ancient Rome earned him the moniker “Robert des Ruines.” When he returned to Paris, he brought with him this fascination with the derelict and obsolete structures of the past, observing (and sometimes imagining) the demolition of Paris’s historic buildings.

The large and masterful red chalk drawing View and Gardens at the Villa Mattei dates to the period when Robert was traveling in Italy with his fellow artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard and their patron, the wealthy connoisseur the Abbé Saint-Non. It represents the Villa Mattei, today known as the Villa Celimontana, built in the Roman countryside during the Renaissance era. Robert made at least three drawings of the Villa Mattei, of which this example is the only one known to survive. The others are recorded only by a counterproof (Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie, Besançon) and by a print commissioned by Saint-Non after a lost drawing. The present drawing is a fully developed studio drawing, no doubt based on sketches that Robert made at the site but intended as a finished, self-sufficient work of art rather than a study or preparatory sketch. Such drawings were much prized by 18th-century collectors.