Hubert Robert

Hubert Robert was known as “Robert of the Ruins”. He painted Roman temples, broken columns and overgrown arches, peopled with small figures going about their daily business, often combining real monuments into imaginary views.

Born in Paris, he spent eleven years in Rome, where he worked with Giovanni Paolo Panini and was influenced by Piranesi. Back in Paris he became a designer of gardens and a keeper of the royal art collection, and was involved in planning the Louvre as a museum. He painted the Bastille during its demolition and even imagined the Grand Gallery of the Louvre in ruins. The Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago hold his work.

Ancient Ruins Used as Public Baths shows his warm light and his view of the past as part of everyday life.