Exposition Hubert Robert @Galerie Eric Coatalem

Eric Kohathalem, hello. You are welcoming us in the midst of the preparation of your exhibition. What can you tell us about it? Hubert Robert is the great ruin painter of the 18th century in France. There has not been an exhibition of such magnitude in a gallery for 20, 30 or 40 years. The last major exhibition was at the Louvre 4 or 5 years ago. In my exhibition, there will be two works that were presented at the Louvre. So there will really be museum works that will be there. Hubert Robert is the great representative of the idea of Greek and Roman antiquity that was made around 1750 after the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii. He is an artist who spends 12 years in Italy, who draws, who takes notes, who learns perspective with Panini and who, when he returns to France, is the real coqueluche of the aristocracy, which means that he paints and draws for all the great aristocrats and the king and all the great families. He will be so recognized and admired that he will be advised to buy paintings of the king. He will be the one who will redraw the park of Versailles, who will draw the lettering of Rambouillet, who will draw the basins of Apollo in Versailles. He has a role both as an artist and as an advisor, since he has not only a great talent but also a lot of taste. He is also an artist who has two periods. He has the very classical period, which we will talk about with this painting, and he has a period of one year in which he is imprisoned, because he is too close to the king. During this period, he will draw in his prison with what he had at hand, but in the end he did not have enough material, so he manages to paint on squiggles, squiggles that he used to smile. Today we know of 30 or 40 in the world, but in the exhibition there will be three. They are quite extraordinary and quite moving objects. He only made ruins. 99% only ruins, absolutely. Was there an aesthetic thought behind it, or was it simply because it was his business fund? There is probably the business fund, but there is also probably the return to the great values of the Roman era with the great heroes, the great myths, the great glorious ideas that will come and that will clash with what was thought to be royalty, that is, a power a little softened or perhaps a little decadent. All these great ideas of Roman grandeur will participate in this very pretentious, but revolutionary, desire for a change of world. You have chosen this superb piece in terms of colour and subtlety, we can see it from here, but for you, what does it represent? Here too, in the exhibition, we have a lot of fairly typical works with more or less famous monuments, but it turns out that for a few months, Hubert Robert goes with his friend Vernet, who was a great painter of marine, he goes in the afternoon and paints all the most beautiful monuments in Provence. This one is one of them, and you have all the most famous monuments in Nîmes put together in a single painting. So here you have the square house of Nîmes, which is the most famous, which will give rise to the construction of the Capitol. You have the Nîmes Arenas, which at the time were inculcated. You have the Temple of Diane, which is destroyed. So, from a perspective point of view, it is obviously totally false, because the buildings are not so close to each other, but that is his specialty, to always mix everything a little to create an atmosphere, but not to respect anything topographically speaking. And the other two are? The other two are really from the period 1793-1794, paintings painted on a ceramic square, so it was really in this that he ate every day, and he ended up painting them and making small scenes, but unfortunately he was imprisoned. He was able to get out alive, but during this period, and just before, he still had the sadness of losing his four children. So there is an idea of freedom, of intellectual evasion, which means that they are always very airy subjects, with Roman monuments that certainly remind him of his youth. You have behind you, I think it's a watercolour. It's a watercolour, which has rarity, and that's what's wonderful, it's also a scene with an Apollo, etc., a scene of Balançoire, with a small text, but there is also written, Fait à Sainte-Pélagie, Hubert Robert. It was really one of the two prisons where he had been condemned, almost too close to the monarchy, so as not to be guilty in the eyes of the revolutionary people. What touches you in Hubert Robert's art? It's fantasy, it's justice, it's a very, very alive artist, very dreamlike, with an absolutely sombre design. And he is the great representative of the ruins in France. You have him at the Louvre, you have him in all the museums in the world. He is a very prolific artist, but always with a very interesting sense of humour and sensitivity. It must be something to do an exhibition on Hubert Robert for you. First of all, it's a pleasure, because he is really an artist that I like a lot, that I try to buy all the time. And then, in this exhibition, there are works that belong to the gallery's stock. There are works that I have sold, that the collectors lend very kindly. And there are also a few works that I have asked collectors to complete the facades. For example, the three plates of Hubert Robert, two are for sale, one is not. But the idea is to show Hubert Robert under all these facades and all these periods. Whether it is for sale or not. The goal is not just to sell. It is also to show other facets of the artist. For example, there will be seven works from the prison period. When you see one, you are ecstatic. Well, seven, I don't know what state we are in, but for the purists of Hubert Robert, it's wonderful. And you have also made a catalogue. There will be a large catalogue written by the specialist, Sarah Catala, with nearly 200 pages and 80-90 reproductions of works that went through the gallery, essentially. Thank you very much.