This painting commissioned by a financier, Jean-François Bergeret de Frouville, was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1775.

See 35.40.1.

The picture is fully signed, inscribed, and dated Paris 1773, and was therefore completed two years before it was exhibited. The composition is known in several variants, in reverse, principally a drawing made earlier in Rome (Musée de Valence) and another painting (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Neither of these includes a jet of water or additional buildings in the background.

[2012]

Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed (right corner, on block of stone): H· · / ROBERT. / PINXIT. L. / PARISIORUM.. / ANNO 1773.

Jean François Bergeret de Frouville, Paris (by 1775–d. 1783); ?Baron d'Anchon, Paris; ?Monsieur L. de Lamolère, Paris; ?Monsieur de Boisfleury, Paris; ?Monsieur Favier, Paris; [Wildenstein, Paris and New York, 1919–21; sold to Mrs. Hewitt]; Mrs. Peter Cooper (Lucy Work) Hewitt, Paris (1921–d. 1934)

Paris. Salon. 1775, no. 71 (as "Le Porteau d'une Maison de Campagne, près de Florence," with 35.40.1, lent by M. de Frouville).

New York. Gimpel & Wildenstein. "Notable Paintings by Hubert Robert (1733–1808)," May 17–June 14, 1919, no. 11 (lent by Wildenstein).

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "French Art: 1200–1900," January 4–March 12, 1932, no. 191 (lent by Mrs. Cooper-Hewitt).

Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Hubert Robert," December 1933, no. 74 (lent by Mrs. Cooper-Hewitt).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Painting and Sculpture of the XVIII Century," November 6, 1935–January 5, 1936, no. 50.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 15, 1970–February 15, 1971, no. 317.

Bordeaux. Galerie des Beaux-Arts. "Profil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York: de Ramsès à Picasso," May 15–September 1, 1981, no. 114.

New York. Wildenstein. "Hubert Robert: The Pleasure of Ruins," November 15–December 16, 1988, unnumbered cat.

New York. Colnaghi. "Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France," November 1–December 15, 1990, no. 43B.

[C. N. Cochin fils?]. Observations sur les ouvrages exposés au sallon du Louvre ou lettre à M. le comte de ***. 1775, p. 41 [Collection Deloynes, X, no. 160, p. 581; author tentatively identified as "M. Cochin"].

"Exposition des peintures, sculptures et gravures de messieurs de l'Académie royale de peinture en 1775." Mercure de France (1775) [collection Deloynes, X, no. 165, p. 733].

C. Gabillot. Hubert Robert et son temps. Paris, 1895, pp. 118, 275.

Pierre de Nolhac. Hubert Robert, 1733–1808. Paris, 1910, p. 52.

Georges Wildenstein. "L'exposition de l'art français à Londres: Le XVIIIe siècle." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 7 (1932), ill. p. 72.

Royal Academy of Arts. Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of French Art, 1200–1900. London, 1933, p. 61, no. 235, reads the date as "1775 (?)".

Louise Burroughs. "Two Decorative Paintings by Hubert Robert." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 30 (December 1935), pp. 230–32, ill. on front cover.

H[arry]. B. W[ehle]. and J[ohn]. G[oldsmith]. P[hillips]. "Notes: Bequest of Lucy Work Hewitt." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 30 (April 1935), p. 91.

Charles Sterling. "XV–XVIII Centuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 160–62, ill.

Denis Diderot. "1769, 1771, 1775, 1781." Salons. 4, Oxford, 1967, pp. 250–51.

La collection des dessins d'Hubert Robert au Musée de Valence. Exh. cat.Lyons, 1968, no. 59c, p. 293, ill., calls it "La Danse" and discusses the architecture as a variant in reverse of the palace depicted in their drawing (no. 59) and the Louvre painting.

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 364, 370, fig. 672 (color).

Jean de Cayeux. Les Hubert Robert de la Collection Veyrenc au Musée de Valence. Exh. cat.Valence, 1985, p. 222, fig. 77.

Jean de Cayeux with the collaboration of Catherine Boulot. Hubert Robert. Paris, 1985, pp. 174–75, 216, observes that the two pictures belonged to Bergeret de Frouville and notes that the 1783 inventory of his estate included "Quatre tableaux peints sur toile par Boucher et Robert, représentant paysages et architectures"; also notes among his papers a "quittance de prix des tableaux fournis à M. de frouville par Mrs. Robert et Boucher".

Jean de Cayeux. Hubert Robert et les jardins. Paris, 1987, p. 56, no. 43, ill.

Alexis Gregory. "The French Landscape: Claude to Corot." Journal of Art 3 (December 1990), p. 17.

Alan Wintermute in Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France. Exh. cat., Colnaghi. New York, 1990, pp. 91–92, 95, 116, 208–12, 217, no. 43B, ill. (color).

Joseph Baillio. "Hubert Robert's Decorations for the Château de Bagatelle." Metropolitan Museum Journal 27 (1992), pp. 162, 164, figs. 13 and 14 (overall and detail), observes that the flute player with the wide-brimmed hat is based on a figure in a sheet of studies (fig. 12) which he dates about 1760–65.

Joseph Baillio et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, [2005], p. 79, as "The Portico of a Roman Building".

Old Master Paintings. Christie's, New York. June 6, 2012, p. 89, under no. 81.