The Statue in Front of Ruins (1763–64): Art, History and Details

The Statue in Front of Ruins (1763–64) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hubert Robert (French, 1733–1808).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Derived from his own pen-and-ink drawings, this suite of etchings features fictional characters situated near recognizable buildings and statues in Rome. On the title page, Robert dedicated the suite to Marguerite Le Compte, who visited Rome in 1764 in the company of the wealthy author and art enthusiast Claude Henri Watelet. Both Le Compte and Watelet were amateur etchers, and they socialized with a group that included artists and printmakers centered at the academies in Italy. Robert’s dedication was likely motivated by the hope of future patronage from Le Compte. She may be the generous woman with a hand muff depicted in The Ancient Temple, the fifth scene in this series.

Object facts

• Title: The Statue in Front of Ruins
• Date: 1763–64
• Creator attribution: Hubert Robert (French, 1733–1808)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Platemark: 13.5 x 9.4 cm (5 5/16 x 3 11/16 in.); Border: 12.7 x 9 cm (5 x 3 9/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1930.548

Collection credit

Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.