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The Portico of a Country Mansion

1773
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 524

Shown at the Salon of 1775, this was among the canvases of which Diderot asked "But, Robert, you have made these sketches for so long, are you unable to make a finished painting?" The artist’s loose handling partook in a deliberate aesthetic of the sketch even at such a large scale. This painting and its pendant (35.40.1) were commissioned by François Bergeret de Frouville, a financier whose older brother was a major patron and collector of contemporary art at the end of the ancien régime. Salon critics improbably thought the structure was a palace outside Florence, evidence of how freely fragments of antique architecture were interpreted in the period. Robert playfully signed the work as executed in "PARISIORUM," in reference to the ancient Roman city that became Paris.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Portico of a Country Mansion
  • Artist: Hubert Robert (French, Paris 1733–1808 Paris)
  • Date: 1773
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 80 3/4 x 48 1/4 in. (205.1 x 122.6 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Lucy Work Hewitt, 1934
  • Object Number: 35.40.2
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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The Return of the Cattle, Hubert Robert French, Oil on canvas
The Return of the Cattle
Hubert Robert
ca. 1773–75
Landscape with a Fallen Tree, Hubert Robert French, Etching
Landscape with a Fallen Tree
Hubert Robert
1764
Le Sarcophage, Hubert Robert French, Etching
Le Sarcophage
Hubert Robert
n.d.
Title, "Les Soirées de Rome", Hubert Robert French, Etching
Title, "Les Soirées de Rome"
Hubert Robert
n.d.
Le Buste, Hubert Robert French, Etching
Le Buste
Hubert Robert
n.d.

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