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Image

Hubert Robert

Antique Ruins with Figures

Description

Maker

Hubert Robert (French, 1733-1808)

Title

Antique Ruins with Figures

Year

ca. 1765-1778

Medium

  • pen and ink,
  • brush and wash,
  • watercolor,
  • and white heightening over black chalk,
  • on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • pen and ink,
  • brush and wash,
  • watercolor,
  • and white heightening over black chalk,
  • on paper

Materials

watercolor, white heightening, pen and ink, wash technique, black chalk

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

56.5 x 71.9 cm (22 1/4 x 28 5/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Marks: Watermark

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Appropriation Fund

Object Number

38.152

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

A Handbook of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

  • Books

Old Master Drawings from the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Alt Author: Johnson, Deborah J.

  • Books

Selected Works

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Fantasy, Myth, Legend
Imagining the Past in Works on Paper since 1750
Dec 16, 2023 – Jun 02, 2024

Label copy

In this drawing, the French artist Hubert Robert combines Roman antiquities such as classical column fragments and sculptural friezes with a pyramidal structure more commonly associated with the monuments of ancient Egypt.

Archaeological discoveries of Greek and Roman antiquities starting in the 1700s began providing artists with new subject matter, as well as new relationships with history. Rather than base their understanding of the past solely on ancient texts, artists took inspiration from objects of the past. Robert and others engaged in fantastical reorderings of history, juxtaposing forms and monuments from different time periods and cultures. 

–SM

Pilgrims of Beauty
Art and Inspiration in 19th-Century Italy
Feb 03, 2012 – Jul 08, 2012

Label copy

This drawing is typical of Hubert Robert’s classical fantasies, which combine elements from various Roman buildings and ruins. In this scene, fragments of columns and relief sculpture in the foreground suggest a distinctly Italian setting. Likewise, the pyramid, despite the Egyptian statues at its door, resembles in its modest scale the Pyramid of Caius Cestius in Rome, a tribute not to a pharaoh, but to an ancient Roman military commander. The loose classical robes worn by the figures leave the time period unclear. Robert created many large-scale drawings like this, based on studies made in Italy between 1754 and 1765. His works inspired later artists to use Italian architecture and landscape as inspiration for expressing their own moods and fantasies.

The Theatre That Was Rome
Apr 09, 2004 – Jul 11, 2004

Label copy

Hubert Robert was a resident of the French Academy in Rome from 1754 to 1765. Young French artists who were awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome would study and live in the Academy’s building at the expense of the French government. Plaster copies of ancient statues, not only from Rome, but from all of Italy, were available on the premises as a convenient means for students to train in drawing. Robert’s fantasy of an enormous pyramid surrounded by Greek and Roman ruins was likely inspired by Piranesi’s imaginative architectural etchings with their dramatic scale and tonal effects.

Treasures on Paper
Drawings and Watercolors from the Permanent Collection
Jun 13, 1989 – Aug 19, 1989
Old Master Drawings
Sep 02, 1983 – Oct 16, 1983
  • More Exhibition History +

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Hubert Robert (French, 1733-1808)
Antique Ruins with Figures, ca. 1765-1778
Pen and ink, brush and wash, watercolor, and white heightening over black chalk, on paper
56.5 x 71.9 cm (22 1/4 x 28 5/16 inches)
Museum Appropriation Fund 38.152

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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