Le Cascade (The Waterfall)

Medium: Oil On Canvas
Size: 151 x 252 cm (59.4 x 99.2 in)

Provenance: Sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, December 5, 1955, lots 1-5, there purchased by H.E. Jorge Ortiz Linares (Bolivian Ambassador to Paris) and Graziella Patino de Ortiz Linares, thence by inheritance.

Literature: To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Hubert Robert being prepared by Joseph Baillio under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.

Robert's paintings and drawings proved him to be not only a literal observer, but also a poetic interpreter of landscape and views of Rome, Paris, and the countryside of the île-de-France. He painted fantasies, such as the Grand Galerie of the Louvre in ruins; but he was on the scene to make sketches (and ultimately, paintings) of the Hôtel Dieu in flames (1772), and the demolition of the Pont Notre-Dame. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Salons, and enjoyed the patronage of leading collectors and members of the aristocracy. In the 1780s, he was appointed designer and draftsman of the King's gardens. At Méréville he designed gardens for the Marquis de Laborde and at Ermenonville, for the Marquis de Girardin. His series of views of the garden of Madame Geoffrin (now in a Paris private collection) were among the best of his work done for prominent private patrons.
This splendid example of his large scale panoramic scenes shows the artist’s mastery of color and perspective. Evidently conceived as part of a series, this work was probably painted in the mid-1770s, after his return to France from Italy. The painting of the figures is unusually fine and shows strong traces of the influence of J-H. Fragonard, with whom he had traveled as a student in Italy.