Hubert Robert

Hubert Robert (1733 - Paris - 1808) - Two washerwomen at a Triton fountain on a square with a statue of Jupiter. Pen and brush and brown ink, brown wash, over traces of black chalk on laid paper with trimmed watermark "Krone". (Circa 1763-64). 18.1 x 23.3 cm. Literature on the sketchbook: Robert O. Parks, Piranesi, Northampton MA 1961, p. 74; Jonathan Scott, Piranesi, London 1975, p. 175, p. 311, note 9; Jean de Cayeux, Hubert Robert et les Jardins, Paris 1987, p. 26. From a sketchbook of studies and compositional sketches made by Hubert Robert in Rome between 1763 and 1764. The type of fountain depicted here obviously goes back to Bernini's decorative fountain in the Piazza Barberini and, with its two sea gods on whose shoulders rests a gigantic, water-filled mussel shell, is more reminiscent of the structure of the Fontana dei Tritoni by Francesco Carlo Bizzaccheri in the Piazza della Bocca della Verità. In the background is an aqueduct, through which the fountain was probably fed. - A barely noticeable diagonal crease in the lower right. The lower corners rounded. Paper somewhat thinned along the margins. The sheet edges with tiny losses. In fine condition. Exhibition: Galerie Cailleux, Paris, "Hubert Robert, Louis Moreau, Exposition Du Cent-Cinquantenaire de Leur Mort", 26.11.-20.12.1957, cat. 1 list, p. 47. folio 10 (as "Lavandières devant un bassin orné de Tritons"); Victor Carlson, Hubert Robert: Drawings and Watercolors, exhib. cat. Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1978, cat. no. 24 (on the entire sketchbook). Provenance: Martine Marie Pol, Comtesse de Béhague (1870-1939); by inheritance to Marquis Hubert de Ganay; by inheritance to Marquis Jean-Louis de Ganay and the Counts Charles, André, Michel and Paul de Ganay, his four brothers; Their auction Sotheby's, Monaco, 1.12.1989, lot 10; Sotheby's, London, auction, 3.7.1998; Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, auction, 18.6.2010, lot 93; Private collection, Munich, acquired in previous auction. Taxation: differential taxation (VAT: Margin Scheme)