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1781
Painting
oil on oak panel
61.5 x 72.5 x 1.2cm panel; 76.7 x 88.5 x 4.5cm frame
Gift of James Fairfax AO 1995
177.1995
Art Gallery of NSW, Ground Level, European Art 15th-18th Century Galleries, Fairfax Galleries/Room 3
Further information
Hubert Robert is one of the quiet voices of French painting. In his youth he worked and studied with Fragonard, a louder talent by comparison, as both artists mastered the subtleties of a shared rococo style. In 1761 they travelled together to southern Italy, the wellspring of Robert's essentially classicising project. Italian view-painters such as Panini and Piranesi authorised his attraction to ancient sites and antiquarian subjects, alerting him to the enduring possibilities of the fragmentary tradition. Even in his native France, Robert's landscapes are unmistakably classical in tenor. The Roman Campagna insinuates itself into this otherwise descriptive scene of the countryside near Paris. Though it lacks anything so imposing as architectural ruins or sculptural wreckage, one senses a powerful note of nostalgia in the work. Even so, few views by Robert are as uncomplicated or as fresh as this, the airiness of the scene prefiguring nineteenth-century innovations in French landscape painting. The artist shown at work on the left is conceivably Robert himself.
AGNSW Handbook, 1999.
Provenance
James Oswald Fairfax AO (Australia, b.1933), 25 Oct 1988-22 Jun 1995, Bowral/New South Wales/Australia, Gift of James Fairfax 1995. Purchased by James Fairfax from Colnaghi, New York, 25 October 1988.
Colnaghi U.S.A. (United States of America), 16 Dec 1987-25 Oct 1988, New York/New York/United States of America, Sold to James Fairfax, 25 October 1988. Purchased by Colnaghi at Hotel Drouot, 16 December 1987, lot no. 61
Private Collection, pre 16 Dec 1987, France, sold Hotel Drouot, 16 December 1987, lot no. 61
Bibliography
Exhibition catalogue; The James Fairfax collection of old master paintings, drawings and prints; Richard Beresford (England; Australia), Peter Raissis (Australia); 2003, 152 (colour illus.), 153-4, 155 (colour illus.), cat.no. 44, illustration on page 155 is a detail
General/Book; Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook; Bruce James (Australia), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940); 1999, 32 (colour illus.), 'Western Collection: Paintings and Sculpture' by Bruce James, pg. 17-77.
Periodical; Gazette des Beaux-Arts; Editor Unknown; Mar 1996, 42 (illus.), 'Chronique des Arts' suppliment, no. 166
Annual report; Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 1995; Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874); 1995, 56
Exhibition catalogue; The James Fairfax collection of old masters; Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874); 1992, no catalogue numbers
Exhibition catalogue; Claude to Corot: the development of landscape painting in France; Alan Wintermute; 1990, cover (colour illus.), 215-7, 216 (colour illus.), cat.no. 45
Exhibition venue
Title: The James Fairfax collection of old master paintings, drawings and prints
Venue: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Opening: 17 Apr 2003
Closing: 20 Jul 2003
Curator: Beresford, Richard
Raissis, Peter
Title: The James Fairfax collection of old masters
Venue: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Opening: 25 Apr 1992
Closing: 14 Jun 1992
Curator: Free, Renée
Capon, Edmund
Title: Claude to Corot: the development of landscape painting in France
Venue: Colnaghi U.S.A.
Opening: 01 Nov 1990
Closing: 15 Dec 1990
Notes: cat.no. 45
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