The Bathing Pool
Hubert Robert·1777–79
Historical Context
Robert's The Bathing Pool (1777–79) at the Metropolitan Museum is part of a series of four decorative paintings depicting the garden pleasures of an ideal ancient world — figures bathing in pools set among ruins and lush vegetation. Robert had been appointed keeper of the royal paintings in 1784 and was one of the most sought-after decorative painters in pre-Revolutionary France, his architectural fantasies providing the visual setting for the aristocracy's ideal of cultivated leisure. The bathing pool subject combined the period's fascination with antiquity with the sensuous pleasures of imagined ancient life, the ruined architecture suggesting both the dignity of the past and its accessibility to contemporary pleasure.
Technical Analysis
Robert's fluid brushwork renders the architectural elements with precise linear clarity while the surrounding foliage and figures are treated with softer, more atmospheric handling. The warm palette of ochres and greens creates a sun-drenched Arcadian mood characteristic of his decorative work.
