Hubert ROBERT (1733 - 1808)

Lot 13
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Estimation :
30000 - 40000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 53 300EUR
Hubert ROBERT (1733 - 1808)
Drawing book containing the handwritten description and sketches of Joseph Vernet's paintings for the Count of Laborde (1797), the handwritten inventory of the paintings of Hubert Robert's collection (1805), the account book of a stay in Lorraine (1807) and various sketches of figures and monuments Drawings in black pencil and annotations in pen and black and brown ink Binding of the time: blue paper boards, red edges Label of the paper merchant La Chapelle in Paris Album size: 18 x 12.50 cm Joseph Vernet introduced his friend Hubert Robert to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1766. It was at this time that "Monsieur de La Borde, banker to the Court", commissioned Joseph Vernet to paint a series of eight pictures to decorate the billiard room of his castle of Méréville, near Etampes. The imposing dimensions (about 3 x 2 meters) make these paintings an impressive ensemble, unfortunately dispersed. Four of the paintings are currently preserved in the museum of Compiègne; the other four, sent to the French embassy in Constantinople in 1900, have disappeared. Louis XVIII had bought the set in 1824. When Hubert Robert copied them in 1797, they no longer belonged to La Borde and Joseph Vernet, his friend and studio neighbor at the Louvre, had been dead for eight years. Robert then surely remembered the famous gardens of Méréville that he created in the 1780s for the Marquis de La Borde. No doubt he also thought of his patron, who was guillotined in 1794, and who, imprisoned under the Terror, almost shared his fate. He continued to frequent his widow to whom he paid his respects in 1804 (see J. de Cayeux, Hubert Robert et les jardins, Paris, 1987, p.102). Hubert Robert had a house in Auteuil, which was then a simple village at the gates of Paris, where it was pleasant to spend the beautiful days. He had arranged his collection there, formed since his trip to Italy (see P. de Nolhac, Hubert Robert, Paris, 1910, p.76). This collection detailed in our notebook was sold at auction on April 5, 1809 following the death of the painter. The number 353 of the sale included a series of "Fifty volumes and booklets filled with sketches that Robert called his walks, offering the most ingenious and useful ideas for composition". Our notebook probably comes from this set. PROVENANCE - Probably sale after the death of the painter, Paris, April 5, 1809, under n° 353, which included "fifty volumes and booklets filled with sketches that Robert called his walks, offering the most ingenious and useful ideas for the composition..." - Collection Pierre de Nolhac - Librairie Pierre Bérès - His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Pierre Bergé & Associés, 13 December 2006, n°629 BIBLIOGRAPHY Florence Ingersoll-Smouse, " Joseph Vernet. Peintre de Marine, 1714 - 1789", Paris, 1926, vol. II, p. 13, mentioned in the notice of n°853 - 859 bis " Huber t Rober t 1733 - 1808. Un peintre visionnaire ", cat. exp. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2016, mentioned p. 505
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