Hubert Robert (Paris 1733-1808)
Lot 32 THE PROPERTY OF A WEST COAST COLLECTOR

Hubert Robert (Paris 1733-1808)

La Cascade: a rocky hillside with a peasant woman and child near a waterfall and boys resting by a blasted tree

Closed27 January 2010

Price Realised

USD 242,500

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Hubert Robert (Paris 1733-1808)
La Cascade: a rocky hillside with a peasant woman and child near a waterfall and boys resting by a blasted tree
oil on canvas
36 x 57¼ in. (91.5 x 145.4 cm.)

Dr. G.H. N[eumans or Neher]; sale, Lair-Dubreuil, Paris, 29 May 1908, lot 45 (6,200 FF).
with Wildenstein, Paris.
Bron Chatelperon, Paris.
Mme. W.H.R.B., Geneva, 1954.
with Cailleux, Paris, 1957.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 10 December 1993, lot 59.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 26 October 2001, lot 321.

Specialist note

The figure of the girl was evidently inspired by the similar figure in François Boucher's La Route du Marché of 1770 (Ananoff, op. cit., no. 690, illustrated; sold, Christie's, Rome, 26 November 1986, lot 60); it was adapted by Robert for several paintings and a drawing now at Valence (Carlson, loc. cit., illustrated; J. de Cayeux, Les Hubert Robert de la Collection Veyrenc au Musée de Valence, 1985, pp. 274-275, illustrated in color p. 64). For another instance of Robert borrowing figures from Boucher, see the catalogue of the exhibition, François Boucher, New York-Detroit-Paris, 1986-7, p. 119.

A smaller picture of a related composition in reverse, La Petite Cascade, was in the Professor Thomas Bodkin sale, Sotheby's, London, 11 November 1959, lot 63, illustrated.

Mr. Joseph Baillio will include this picture in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Hubert Robert, being prepared with the assistance of the Wildenstein Institute.