Hubert Robert (Paris 1733-1808)

The mill is possibly that of Roconval on the outskirts of Paris, depicted in another drawing and counterproof by Robert (sale A.F., Paris, 4 May 1906, lot 45, present whereabouts unknown, and M. Paulme, Paris, 14 May 1929, lot 229, pl. 151). The counterproof bears an inscription Cour du moulin de Roconval (J. de Cayeux, op. cit., p. 230). The motif of a man on a bridge with a dog in a rustic setting is found in a drawing by François Boucher at the Morgan Library, New York (François Boucher in North American Collections: 100 drawings, exhib. cat., Washington, National Gallery of Art and Chicago, The Art Institute, 1973, no. 59) and engraved by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houël (P. Jean-Richard, L'oeuvre gravé de François Boucher dans la collection Edmond de Rothschild, Paris, 1978, p. 269, no. 1081).
A counterproof from the present drawing was sold at Christie's, Paris, 16 December 2005, lot 126.