HUBERT ROBERT | La Promenade solitaire

Anonymous Sale, Paris, Me Horsin-Déon/Levillain, 31 January 1857, lot 73;
Private collection, Normandy.

Le tableau paraît en réalité plus frais et moins jaune que sur l'illustration au catalogue. A l’œil nu : Le tableau apparaît en très bon état de conservation. Le tableau a fait l'objet d'un rentoilage (ancien, à la colle). On n'observe aucun accident. La couche picturale est couverte d’un réseau de craquelures fines et serrées. On observe une craquelure en escargot dans la zone des arbres. On remarque quelques minceurs de la couche picturale dans la zone verte derrière les arbres principaux. A la lampe UV : On observe une ancienne couche de vernis qui fluoresce presque complètement et qui ne montre que quelques reprises des contours dans les zones sombres du feuillage. Autrement, le tableau semble très bien conservé. Vendu dans un cadre sculpté en bois doré (quelques éclats). The actual painting seems fresher and less yellow in tone than the catalogue and the cover illustration would suggest. With the naked eye: The painting seems to be in a very good condition. The canvas has been relined (old glue relining). No damages seem to be apparent. The painted surface is covered with a fine and tight craquelure pattern ; a small pressure point located in the tree area can be observed. Some minor thinness is visible in the green area behind the main trees. Inspection under U.V. light: Reveals an old varnish layer that fluoresces almost completely and only shows some strengthening of the darker parts of the foliage. Otherwise, everything seems to be nicely preserved. Offered with a carved and giltwood frame (some chips).
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

We are grateful to Mme Sarah Catala for confirming the authenticity of this work after first-hand inspection and for writing this catalogue entry.

The association of the name of Hubert Robert with that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) for this painting might be surprising if one forgets that the former had designed the tomb of the latter in 1778, before recording it on the eve of his re-interment in the Panthéon in 1794. However, it was in the context of collaborations on several garden embellishment projects, initiated around 1777, notably at Ermenonville, that Robert painted the 'gentle melancholy' of this promenade here.

In the solitude and almost bewitching calm that rule the woods, a young woman seems to give way to reverie as she moves closer to a tomb. Robert composed his view from nature, as he had done for the Italian monuments, by creating a threshold marked by two trees, acting as repoussoirs, stretching toward the sky. The usual elements of Robert's painting are present: the jagged forms of trunks and branches inspired by the landscapes of Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), the light coming from an opening in the 'gallery' of branches and the ruin of an imagined antique sculpture based on the tombs he studied in Rome. Robert's sketchy manner is easily recognisable, with its long brushstrokes delineating the ground and the impasto used to render the foliage, to say nothing of the rapid line of the forms of the bas-reliefs and the woman's drapery. Her contemplative expression appears in a counterproof in Besançon [1], but her profile, her heavy drapery and her hair arranged with ribbons all recall the matron in the Shepherds of Arcadia by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) which Robert greatly admired [2]. On the other hand, the palette of our canvas is distinctive, but it can be compared with the shades of blue and green which characterise the Bath, one of the six large panels painted for the bathroom of the Folie de la Bagatelle in 1777 and now belonging to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Meditation before a sarcophagus is a recurring theme in Robert's oeuvre; we find it as well in sketches in his albums [3] and in his project drawings for the tomb of the La Rochefoucald and Chabot families at La Roche-Guyon in 1777 [4]. That year, Robert exhibited at the Salon La Brasserie d'Ermenonville [5], at the same moment that Rousseau was writing his Reveries of the solitary walker on the estate of the marquis de Girardin. It may have been at Girardin's request that Robert painted our canvas, which appears to embody the philosopher's ideas, associated with the innovations of English painting, notably that of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), where the landscape in portraits is perceived as a state of the soul. In any case, the relations between Girardin and Robert are not in doubt, any more than their philosophical discussions since Robert painted the Temple of Philosophy, which the marquis had had constructed in his garden. Like our canvas, it bears neither signature nor date, nor do we know its background history, in spite of a remarkable facture that matches the richness of its subject. ^[1] Lavandières près d'une fontaine, dans un jardin, Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, inv. vol. 453, n° 62 ;  reprod. dans S. Catala, Les Hubert Robert de Besançon, 2013, n° 99.
^[2] G. Faroult dans cat. exp. Hubert Robert (1733-1808) Un peintre visionnaire, Paris, musée du Louvre, 2016, n° 62.
^[3] A. May, cat. exp. Un album de croquis d'Hubert Robert, Genève, Galerie Cailleux, 1979, n° 66.
^[4] S. Catala and G. Wick, Hubert Robert et la fabrique des jardins, La Roche-Guyon, 2017.
^[5] Lisbonne, musée Calouste Gulbenkian, inv. 440.
^[6] Vente New York, Sotheby's, 31 janvier 2013, lot 89 : reprod. dans cat. exp. Paris, 2016, fig. 34, p.84.