HUBERT ROBERT (1733-1808)

A STUDY OF TWO MEN BY A FOUNTAIN
Red chalk with pen & ink on laid paper, partially made up u.m.
13.5 x 14.5 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
With J.H.J. Mellaart, The Netherlands & London (by 1948);
Private collection, U.K.
 
 
 
 
 
The present work is one of numerous figure studies by Robert executed in both pen & ink and red chalk. Closely-comparable examples include Two boys seated on a wall, sold at Sotheby's, London, 07.12.1976, lot 36; Personage vue en pied, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris; and others in Lille (S. Raux, Catalogue des Dessins Français du XVIIIe Siècle, exhib. cat., Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1995, no. 63).
 
These drawings will once have been in one of Robert's sketchbooks from his years in Rome (1760-1763), and at some stage were separated from their original album. There were over fifty sketchbooks listed in the artist's studio sale in 1809, demonstrating his remarkable lifelong commitment to recording everyday scenes and details for use in his oil paintings.