Hubert Robert

This subtle and atmospheric red chalk drawing depicts Vignola's Gate to the Farnese Gardens, Rome, with a coach and horses.

Robert was in Rome from 1754 to 1765. He was sent to the French Academy by the Comte de Stainville (later the Duc de Choiseul) and seems to have established himself there quickly, earning a good report as well as commissions. Aside from studying classical antiquities and architecture, the students were encouraged to go out and draw in the countryside, this activity was keenly promoted by Claude Joseph Natoire (1700-1777), who was a firm believer in drawing ‘en plein air’ to aide artistic development.

Robert extensively studied the ancient ruins, particularly the Forum, providing himself with ample motifs for future paintings and drawings. He often included figures in many of his views, sometimes to emphasize the scale of grandiose monuments but often, like the present drawing, to animate his scenes with daily activity. Robert’s characteristic handling of foliage and deftness with the medium of red chalk is aptly described by Mary Tavener Holmes when describing Robert’s Italian views: ‘energetic saw-toothed lines for foliage and dense parallel hatching in the shadows, the deep red chalk contrasting with the white paper and the paper often reserved to mimic brilliant sunlight.’¹

1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Eighteenth Century French Drawings in New York Collections, exhib. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, p. 104, under no. 46