Hubert ROBERT (Paris, 1733 - 1808 ) Elegant company beside a lake in a park inspired by the gardens of the Château de Versailles Oil on canvas mounted on panel (Restorations) Elegant company by a pond in a park inspired by the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, oil on canvas laid down on panel, by H. Robert 10.23 x 14.56 in. 26 x 37 cm Provenance: Jules Burat Collection (1807-1885) ; Sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Me Chevallier, 28-29 April 1885, no. 87 ; Anonymous sale; Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 24 May 1955, no. 155; Private collection, Paris Bibliography: Pierre de Nolhac, Hubert Robert 1733-1808, Paris, 1910, p. 145 In its execution, our charming little canvas can be compared to a representation of the Orangerie at Versailles in the Château's collections1. Hubert Robert was no stranger to these views of groves, with their figures whose reduced scale reinforces the grandiose character of the vertical water feature. As a chronicler of everyday life, as in his much larger painting entitled La Fontaine (The Fountain) in the museum in Fort Worth, Texas2, here he depicts a strange scene in which a large rolling scaffold used for trimming hedges is being pushed, referred to as a cart in the gardening article in the volume of Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie devoted to agriculture3. The light palette, which contrasts with the more saturated hues used by the painter during his Roman years, can be found in other outdoor paintings from the 1770s. Here, Hubert Robert composed both an architectural and a societal caprice, bringing gardeners and aristocrats together in the same setting. Our work comes from the important collection of the art lover Jules Burat, who was very fond of French painters of the 17th and 18th centuries. He also owned Fragonard's Visite à la nourrice, now in the National Gallery in Washington (no. 1946.7.7) and a Self-portrait by Jean Naigeon (anonymous sale; Sotheby's, 13 June 2023, no. 41). A friend and rival of another great collector of his time, Louis La Caze (1798-1869), as presented in the introduction to the catalogue of his 1885 death sale written by Paul Mantz, Jules Burat had built up an important panorama of French painting that began under Louis XIII with Simon Vouet. 1. Anonymous sale; Paris, Christie's, 14 September 2016, no. 52 (L'orangerie du château de Versailles, oil on panel, 46.5 x 37 cm), pre-empted by the Château de Versailles 2. Inv. no. AP 1970.15 3. Denis Diderot, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Recueil de planches sur les sciences, les arts libéraux et les arts mécaniques avec leur explication : Agriculture, volume n° 23, 1751-1780, p. 14 Hubert ROBERT (Paris, 1733 - 1808 ) 26 x 37 cm