Figures in a Roman Arcade
1763
Medium
Red chalk; framing lines in pen and brown ink
Dimensions
17 1/2 x 13 1/4 in. (44.5 x 33.6 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
Accession Number
1972.118.228
Tags
Art Historical Context
Hubert Robert, a masterful French artist dubbed "Robert des Ruines created *Figures in a Roman Arcade in 1763 during formative years in Rome. As a pensionnaire at the French Academy, Robert immersed himself in the Eternal City's ancient architecture, sketching its arches, colonnades, and sunlit spaces with a poetic eye. This drawing captures the grandeur of Roman arcades—those iconic vaulted passageways—peopled with elegant figures, evoking theancy of 18th Grand Tour travelers amid timeless ruins. Executed in red chalk with precise framing lines in pen and brown ink, the work exemplifies Robe...
About the Artist
Hubert Robert · 1733–1808
Hubert Robert, born on May 22, 1733, in Paris, emerged from a modest background; his father, Nicolas Robert, served the influential Choiseul family, whose patronage shaped the young artist's path. After completing his studies at the Jesuit Collège de Navarre in 1751, he entered the atelier of sculptor Michel-Ange Slodtz, who taught him design and perspective before encouraging a shift to painting....