Hubert Robert "L'inspiration ne se joue que dans le faire"

Here you have, in Hubert Robert's work, a kind of heroic stoicism that is absolutely essential, which consists in saying that it is not because a society feels itself destined for ruin, and that it feels what it builds is destined for ruin, that it is, however, dispensed with building it. This is absolutely fundamental. And here you have the final vision, of course, of the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, with this zenithal lighting that he had proposed as early as 1778, but which will only be realized in 1805 by Percier and Fontaine, the great architects of the Consulate and the Library of the Empire, who will realize for Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine, of course, Reveille Malmaison. It's Percier and Fontaine. And this zenithal lighting will be taken up again very shortly after by one of the most brilliant architects of the early 19th century, Sir John Soane, in the famous Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. And from that moment on, zenithal lighting will become an obsession of all museum creators. And here you have an absolutely overwhelming moment, since it is the Grand Gallery of the Louvre that you have just seen, it is the detail, what matters is the work. That is to say that in the midst of this accumulation of grandeur and beauty, it is not a question of staying in a posture of simple iconic contemplation, it is a question of putting your hands, your pencils, your brushes in the traces of the greats, not to break the secret of their creation, but to actually see how they did it, because everything is a matter of doing. You have Hubert Robert here in the back, who is actually copying Raphael's Holy Family. Inspiration is only played in doing. It is only verified in doing.