The ruins in this painting are based on the Colosseum in Rome. Like its pendant, Colonnade in Ruins (The Met; 17.190.32), the steep perspective is consistent with its use as an overdoor, seen from below. Robert's workshop was likely involved in the execution of this painting.
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Title:Arches in Ruins
Artist:Hubert Robert (French, Paris 1733–1808 Paris)
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:23 1/8 x 61 1/4 in. (58.7 x 155.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Object Number:17.190.31
These narrow paintings, designed by Robert as overdoors, were thus intended to be seen both from a relative distance and from below. In the interest of increasing the effect of illusion, the artist placed the figures upon grassy hillocks with the ruins sunk (and in one case partially buried) behind. He deploys the Doric order, which is the simplest and most robust. As has been suggested, the lowest arcade of the Colosseum in Rome provides a useful source, or comparison. The pallid coloring in the background contributes to the impression of recession. See also A Colonnade in Ruins (17.190.32).
Katharine Baetjer 2011
?Pierre Justin Armand Verdier, comte de Flaux, château de Flaux, near Uzès (until d. 1883); ?Édouard Henri Roger Verdier, comte de Flaux, château de Flaux (1883–d. 1898); Clémence Pascal Verdier, comtesse douairière de Flaux, château de Flaux (1898–d. 1908); Flaux estate (under arbitration, 1908–10); Eliane Berger, Roger de Flaux's daughter (1910–11; offered for sale to The Met and J. Pierpont Morgan through Maurice de Verneuil); J. Pierpont Morgan, New York (1911–d. 1913; his estate, 1913–17; on loan to The Met from April 1912)
Paris. Thos. Agnew & Sons. "Hubert Robert (1733–1808)," March 12–30, 1912, one of nos. 1–8 (as "Panneaux Décoratifs pour un salon, provenant de la collection de Madame de Flaux," lent by J. Pierpont Morgan).
Northampton, Mass. Smith College Museum of Art. "Pompeiian Exhibition," November 18–December 15, 1948, no catalogue.
New York. Wildenstein. "Hubert Robert: The Pleasure of Ruins," November 15–December 16, 1988, unnumbered cat.
Oberlin, Ohio. Allen Memorial Art Museum. "The Splendor of Ruins in French Landscape Painting, 1630–1800," March 19–June 19, 2005, no. 31.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Splendor of Ruins in French Landscape Painting, 1630–1800," July 17–October 16, 2005, no. 31.
D. F[riedley]. "Decorative Panels by Hubert Robert." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 7 (July 1912), pp. 130–31, announces J. Pierpont Morgan's loan of eight paintings by Robert and claims that this picture and its pendant (17.190.32) decorated the same room as the others (17.190.25–30).
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 84.
Charles Sterling. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. Vol. 1, XV–XVIII Centuries. Cambridge, Mass., 1955, p. 168, states that there is no evidence for the tradition that this canvas and its companion were painted for Bagatelle.
Joseph Baillio. "Hubert Robert's Decorations for the Château de Bagatelle." Metropolitan Museum Journal 27 (1992), pp. 173, 182 n. 49, observes that this painting and its pendant may have been in the Flaux collection with Robert's paintings from Bagatelle, and that all of them were offered by Maurice de Verneuil to this Museum and then to Morgan.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 383, ill. p. 384.
Stephen D. Borys. The Splendor of Ruins in French Landscape Painting, 1630–1800. Exh. cat., Allen Memorial Art Museum. Oberlin, Ohio, 2005, pp. 154–55, no. 31, ill. (color).
Katharine Baetjer. French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution. New York, 2019, pp. 294–95, no. 97, ill. (color).
From a typescript in The Met's Archives (see Morgan, J.P., 1st, M. 8224, Loans- Paintings and Miniatures, Old Master Drawings): "Mystery of the Panels, Paris Letter," incorrectly as in American Art News (December 29, 1917), it is stated that Robert painted eight panels for Bagatelle which Empress Eugénie gave to her physician; they were sold to Comte Flaux, and later entered the collection of De Verneuil, head of Paris syndicate of official agents de change; the six panels were sold "about 10 years ago" to Morgan for "something like $200,000"; the question of the whereabouts of the other two is raised.
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