Hubert Robert

(French, 1733–1808)

Hubert Robert was a French painter best known for his landscapes and romanticized depictions of ruins. His love of dilapidated structures set within idyllic gardens led to his work as a designer for the architect < a href="/artists/richard-mique/">Richard Mique, who famously constructed Marie Antoinette’s Hameau de la Reine, the queen’s rustic retreat at Versailles. Born on May 22, 1733 in Paris, France, Robert went on to study perspective and drawing with the sculptor René-Michel Slodtz, followed by spending 11 years in Rome making sketches of ruins with Jean Honoré Fragonard and Giovanni Battista Piranesi while studying at the French Academy. The artist’s close relationship with the aristocracy during his lifetime led to him being imprisoned and nearly executed, along with some of his works and architectural designs being destroyed during the French Revolution. Today, his works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others. Robert died on April 15, 1808 in Paris, France.