Showing posts with label Chateau de Bagatelle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chateau de Bagatelle. Show all posts

Friday, December 8, 2023

HUBERT ROBERT's set of six panels for the Comte d'Artois




Based on a bet with Queen Marie Antoinette, King Louis XV’s youngest brother, the comte d’Artois, had a pleasure pavilion built on the outskirts of Paris in a mere sixty-four days through the labor of more than eight hundred craftsmen. Robert’s six paintings of Italian landscapes were installed in an elaborate bathing room, prompting their overarching theme of water. Having spent eleven years in Italy, where he befriended Jean HonorĂ© Fragonard and other French artists abroad, Robert knew ancient architecture and sculpture deeply. In this series, however, instead of antiquarian exactitude, he combined sources freely.