Lot n° 142
Estimation :
15000 - 20000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 92 710EUR
Hubert ROBERT (1733-1808) - Lot 142
Hubert ROBERT (1733-1808)
Hubert ROBERT (1733-1808)
Napoleon Bonaparte in front of a factory designed for the garden of Malmaison
About 1800
Oil on canvas
H. 37,5 ; L. 50 cm
History:
Agnew's Gallery, London, 1966 (as Marie Constance Charpentier); acquired by Dr. James Hasson (as Marie Constance Charpentier); private collection / by descent to heirs (as Marie Constance Charpentier).
Exhibition:
London, Agnew's, 1966, no. 69 (as Marie Constance Charpentier).
Now returned to Hubert Robert, this painting is exceptional because of the identification of the figure of Bonaparte and because it bears witness to the aspirations of an artist associated with the spirit of the Enlightenment at the turn of the century.
In a few brushstrokes, Hubert Robert sketches the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte in the foreground of a view of a wood. Dressed in a frock coat, wearing boots and a bicorn, the man turning away from the viewer has slipped his left hand into his waistcoat. The presence of this legendary figure associated with the intimacy of a park allows the walk to be situated in the garden of Malmaison. This work on evocation rather than description is characteristic of Robert's art. Indeed, the artist likes to blur the space-time reference points, offering the viewer the image of a moment that could happen. To reinforce this feeling of infinity, he uses a deliberately sketchy style. The only precise elements are the quotations that he likes to integrate into his compositions for the pleasure and flattery of the viewer who will recognize them. For these reasons, the attribution to the painter who excelled in portraiture, Constance Marie Charpentier (1767-1848), when the painting appeared on the art market in 1966, must be abandoned. This proposal was made in the context of the research carried out by Charles Sterling, then curator of paintings at the Louvre Museum and under contract to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the establishment of the catalogue raisonné of French paintings1. The history of the painting remains to be clarified, as the work is not described in Robert's sale after his death on 4 April 1809, nor in the inventory after the death of the artist's widow, Anne Gabrielle, drawn up in 18212. Perhaps the painter sold it to one of Bonaparte's entourage or admirers. In any case, Robert painted his picture as a tribute to Josephine3, who was civilly married to Napoleon in 1796.
A botanical enthusiast, Josephine carefully supervised the development and enlargement of the Malmaison estate, a private residence acquired with Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The mistress of the house was increasingly dissatisfied because the projects of the architects Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853) did not take into consideration her taste for English gardens. In 1801, the duo was replaced by the architect Jean-Marie Morel (1728-1810). The latter had become famous for his garden designs, notably at L'isle-Adam for the Prince of Conti and at Ermenonville for the Marquis de Girardin. For Malmaison, he is in charge of composing the English-style park, by arranging views highlighting sometimes the irregularity of the estate or the poetry of a factory, sometimes the knowledge of botany with the creation of a greenhouse and the acclimatization of extra-European species. The architect was in turn dismissed in 1805 and replaced several times until the arrival of Martin Berthault (1770-1823) who knew how to meet Josephine's expectations.
It was perhaps during this period of tension with Percier and Fontaine that Robert produced his painting for Joséphine, perhaps with the aim of obtaining a commission for a painting or the composition of a factory, or even for the entire park layout. Indeed, the artist was eligible because he was able to diversify his professional activities, combining the painting of ruins and gardens, the design of landscaping and conservation for the Central Museum of Arts. He was approved and received as an "architectural painter" in 1766, before being appointed "draughtsman of the king's gardens" and adviser to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1784. In 1778, he became "guard of the king's paintings" and worked on the preparation of the opening to the public of the royal collections gathered in the Louvre Palace. Robert lost this last position when he was imprisoned in October 1793, but regained it in April 1795 as a member of the Conservatoire, which became the Conseil de direction des artistes in 1797.
It was as advisor to the Musée Central des Arts that he met Josephine in March 1800. At the
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