Drawing By Hubert Robert—view Of The Transsept Of St. Peter's And Figures—double-sided

Hubert ROBERT (Paris 1733–1808)

Baptism Ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
(Interior view of St. Peter’s)

Black chalk, pen and black ink, gray wash (front); pen and black ink, brown wash (back).
23 x 18 cm

Front and back

Description

A lively and spontaneous sketch, typical of Hubert Robert’s free and rapid style, in which the artist captures the atmosphere of a grand Roman religious interior in just a few strokes. The pen lines, energetic and light, outline the monumental architecture: on the left, a portico with a triangular pediment adorned with putti and Corinthian columns shelters a statue in a niche; in the center, the tall silhouette of a statue with a halo dominates the nave, whose vertical pillars soar toward the vaults.

In the lower section, a group of small figures, rendered in wash and pen, crowd around the baptismal font. This activity conveys the scale of the building and highlights the immensity of the space. The broad gray washes, at times dense, at times transparent, create effects of light and atmospheric depth, while the areas left unpainted suggest the light that bathes the basilica.

On the reverse: a study of four figures conversing, draped in the classical style, rendered in pen and black ink with brown wash. These figures are reminiscent of certain groups in the paintings of Salvator Rosa (compare with his “Diogenes and His Cup”, Copenhagen). They reappear on the front of another sheet from the same set (lot 26B from the 1989 auction).

This drawing belongs to the artist’s Roman period (his stay in Italy, 1754–1765), a time when Piranesi’s influence is evident in his pen-and-wash drawings.

Provenance:
Martine, Countess of Béhague (1870–1939);
by descent, Marquis Hubert de Ganay, then his sons;
Estate of the Marquis de Ganay, Sotheby’s auction, Monaco, December 1, 1989, lot 23B.

Sheet from the album of drawings executed in Italy by Hubert Robert, which remained complete in the Béhague-Ganay collection until 1989 and likely originated from the sale of the artist’s studio (Paris, April 5, 1809). This album was exhibited at the Galerie Cailleux in Paris in 1957 (exhibition Hubert Robert – Louis Moreau, no. 1), and then at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1978 (catalog by Victor Carlson, no. 12).

Bibliography: M. Beau, The Collection of Drawings by Hubert Robert at the Musée de Valence, Lyon, 1968, cited in the note for no. 32.

Condition: slightly sun-faded, small spots—sold unframed