Hubert Robert

Datable to the late 1760s, this very large and highly finished red chalk drawing is likely to have been done as an independent work of art for sale. As has been noted of the artist, ‘A surprisingly large portion of Robert’s drawing production involved the execution of complete compositions that he considered to be finished works in themselves.’ The drawing depicts the so-called Cuisines de Saint-Louis, the kitchens in the medieval Palais de la Cité, situated on the Ile de la Cité in Paris. (The residence of the French kings from the 6th to the 14th centuries, the building now houses the Conciergerie, the Palais de Justice and the Sainte-Chapelle.) Built in 1353 by King John II of France, known as John the Good, the kitchen pavilion originally consisted of two floors, with the king’s kitchen on the first floor and the servant’s kitchen on the ground floor, with four huge corner fireplaces and a vault supported by several low columns. After Charles V moved the royal court to the Palais du Louvre across the river in the middle of the 14th century, these rooms were eventually converted into a state prison, the Conciergerie.

A counterproof of this drawing is today in the Bibliothèque Municipale in Besançon, part of a group of nearly two hundred counterproofs by Robert divided between the collections of the Bibliothèque Municipale and the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archaéologie in Besançon. Robert often made counterproofs of his drawings in both red and black chalk; this was an essential task, since by making a counterproof, any excess chalk dust – which otherwise might easily smear - would be removed from the original drawing. Counterproofs also served the artist as records of successful compositions. At times Robert would sell the counterproof and keep the original drawing for himself, while at other times he would extensively rework the counterproof with chalk, ink or watercolour to create a finished, reversed version of the original composition. Furthermore, as Grasselli has noted of the artist, ‘Upon occasion, he made replicas of his sanguines, usually with some variations; presumably these copies had been requested by patrons or were easily saleable.’ Indeed, a close copy or variant of the present composition, drawn in red chalk and of similar dimensions, appeared at auction in Paris in 1929.

The Rouen merchant and archaeologist Louis Deglatigny (1854-1936) assembled an extensive collection of paintings, drawings, books and prints, including a significant number of drawings by Hubert Robert. Although much of Deglatigny’s collection was dispersed over five auctions in Paris in 1937, the year after his death, the present sheet remained with his descendants until 2019.