Poppy Harvey-Jones
Head of Sale
Lot 12
Hubert Robert(Paris 1733-1808)Villa Madama, Rome
3 December 2014, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£30,000 - £50,000
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Hubert Robert (Paris 1733-1808)
Villa Madama, Rome
red chalk on laid paper, pen and black ink framing lines
36.5 x 46.6cm (14 3/8 x 18 3/8in).
red chalk on laid paper, pen and black ink framing lines
36.5 x 46.6cm (14 3/8 x 18 3/8in).
Footnotes
Provenance
The Collection of Randall Robert Henry Davies (1866-1946)
With Colnaghi, London, 1936, where acquired by the present owner's father
Literature
Exh. cat. J. H. Fragonard e H. Robert a Roma, Villa Medici, Rome, 1990-91, under cat. no. 52
This exciting rediscovery is the drawing from the collection of Randall Robert Henry Davies (1866 – 1946), the author of books on English drawings and watercolours, and proprietor of New York World. It is referred to under cat. no. 52 in the exhibition catalogue J. H. Fragonard e H. Robert a Roma, Villa Medici, Rome, 1990-91, as having been acquired from him by Colnaghi in 1936, according to a mount in the Witt Library. Its importance is that it must be the preliminary sketch for the watercolour of the Villa Madama that was in Mariette's collection and is now in the Albertina (exh. cat. cit., no.52, col. pl. XVII), which itself preceded what is generally regarded as one of Robert's most successful paintings, now in the Hermitage (ibid. cat. no. 53; col. pl. XVIII). It is extremely rare to find a genuine compositional sketch for one of Robert's watercolours.
We are grateful to Alastair Laing for his kind assistance in the cataloguing of this drawing.
