Robert, Hubert

Robert, Hubert (übâr` rôbĕr`), 1733–1808, French painter and landscape architect. A follower of Piranesi and Pannini, Robert was known as a painter of idealized landscapes, fantastic ruins, and vistas of city plazas and parks. His decorations for the Château of Fontainebleau (1787) are now in the Louvre. Robert was one of the first curators of painting at the Louvre and a draftsman for the gardens at Versailles. Imprisoned during the French Revolution, he escaped death when another man of the same name went to the guillotine in his place. He later died in obscurity.

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Robert, Hubert 

Born May 22, 1733, in Paris; died there Apr. 15, 1808. French painter.

Robert worked in Paris except between 1754 and 1765, when he lived in Italy. He was made a member of the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1767 and an honorary associate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1802. Robert participated in the redesign of the Versailles gardens in 1775. In 1784 he became a curator at the Louvre.

Robert’s paintings, which were influenced by G. B. Piranesi, are mostly representations of ancient ruins, park views, and various events from Parisian life. They reflect the artist’s vivid imagination and are marked by a subtle use of aerial perspective. Robert introduced rococo elements into his landscapes through the deliberate contrast of lively genre scenes with the massive architecture.

REFERENCES

D’iakov, L. A. Giuber Rober. Moscow, 1971.
Leclère, T. Hubert Robert et les paysagistes français du XVIII siècle. Paris, 1913.