HUBERT ROBERT (1733-1808)

STUDY OF TWO BOYS SEATED ON A WALL
Red chalk with pen & ink on laid paper
Watermarked with the countermark (?) GR
14.7 x 11.7 cm
 
PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 07.12.1976, lot 36
 
 
&
 
 
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 two sheets are part of a series of early figure studies by Robert executed in both pen & ink and red chalk. Closely-comparable examples include 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.