June 26 – October 2, 2016
One
of the most prominent artists of his era, Hubert Robert is perhaps
best known today as “Robert of the Ruins,” the nickname bestowed on him by the
eighteenth-century philosopher, critic, and encyclopedist Denis Diderot.
Indeed, Robert loved and depicted ruined structures of all types, whether real
or imagined, and not just those of ancient Rome (he lived in Italy for eleven
years).
He also drew inspiration from scenes he encountered in his native
France, including urban renewal projects, Gallo-Roman antiquities, and natural
disasters. At the core of his success was his brilliance as a master of the
architectural capriccio, in which random monuments from different locales were
artfully brought together to create new, completely imaginary landscapes.
In
addition to being a talented landscape painter, Robert was a gifted and
prolific draftsman, an engaging printmaker, an interior decorator, and a garden
designer. Lively, intelligent, and much sought after, this good-humored,
well-loved bon vivant moved easily through the most exalted circles of Paris’s
society, even though his own parents had been personal attendants in an
aristocratic household. He later addressed the demise of this glittering
world through representations of contemporary events such as the vandalizing of
royalist monuments and the destruction of the Bastille prison during the French
Revolution.
Imprisoned himself, he narrowly escaped the guillotine and upon his
release completed a series of meditative depictions of the newly created Musée
du Louvre, where he served as curator until his death in 1808. With some
50 paintings and 50 drawings, this monographic exhibition, coorganized by the
National Gallery of Art and the Musée du Louvre, is the first in more than 80
years to encompass his entire career and to survey his achievements as both a
painter and a draftsman.
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/exhibitions/2016/hubert-robert.html
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario