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| The Return of the Cattle |
Artist:Hubert Robert (French, Paris 1733–1808 Paris)
Date:ca. 1773–75
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:80 3/4 x 48 in. (205.1 x 121.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Lucy Work Hewitt, 1934
The picture is a pendant to The Portico of a Country Mansion (35.40.2).
Catalogue Entry
Among Robert’s exhibits at the 1775 Salon was a pair of paintings listed under number 71 as belonging to Monsieur de Frouville. The full description, in translation, was "Two Paintings, one The Return of the Cattle under the Ruins in the Setting Sun, the other The Portico of a Country Mansion, near Florence." The lender was Jean François Bergeret de Frouville (1719–1783), a wealthy official whose older brother was the better known collector Bergeret de Grancourt. The pictures were well received though one critic found Robert’s works inadequately finished and another remarked that the foreground of The Return of the Cattle was overelaborated. Nothing more was heard of them until 1919, when they were exhibited at Gimpel & Wildenstein in New York.
The painting is in every way typical of Robert, who favored ancient vaults, lanterns, diagonal light effects, and sheep descending zigzag paths accompanied by peasants on foot or mounted on donkeys. The girl riding sidesaddle derives from François Boucher (1703–1770), as Alan Wintermute pointed out.
Katharine Baetjer 2014
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
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