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| Hubert Robert Trevi Fountain under Construction c. 1760 Morgan Library |
Hubert Robert (1733-1808) left France to refine his eye in Italy from 1754 to 1765. He made immense quantities of studies there, later using them back home as resources for a long and lucrative career. The drawings grouped here are preserved at the Morgan Library in New York. Above, Robert's sketch from about 1760 of the not-yet-famous Trevi Fountain in Rome, still under construction.
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| Hubert Robert Temple of Neptune, Paestum c. 1760 Morgan Library |
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| Hubert Robert Italian Garden 1760s Morgan Library |
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| Hubert Robert Campidoglio, Rome 1762 Morgan Library |
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| Hubert Robert Stables at the Villa Giulia 1760s Morgan Library |
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| Hubert Robert Villa Madama 1760s Morgan Library |
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| Hubert Robert Arch of Titus 1760s Morgan Library |
Even in the middle of the eighteenth century – long after the revival of Italian art had come and gone – the surviving triumphal arches of Rome remained half-buried in medieval debris, a point that Robert actually exaggerated in the drawing of the Arch of Titus immediately above. Below, Robert surely intended the viewer to understand that the artist perched on a precarious arrangement of chairs and trestles, with board propped on knees, should be read as himself.
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| Hubert Robert Draughtsman in Italian Church 1763 Morgan Library |
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| Hubert Robert Villa d'Este 18th century Morgan Library |