Louis Léopold Robert (13 May 1794 – 20 March 1835) was a
Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
.
Biography
He was born at
La Chaux-de-Fonds
La Chaux-de-Fonds (; archaic ) is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Biel/Bienne, and Fribourg, ...
(
Neuchâtel
Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...
) in Switzerland, but left his native place with the engraver
Jean Girardet
Jean Girardet (1709 – 28 September 1778) was a French portrait and mural painter.
Biography
Girardet was born at Lunéville. Before becoming a painter he was, successively, a seminarian, a law student, and a cavalry officer. After settli ...
at the age of sixteen for Paris.
He was on the eve of obtaining the ''grand prix'' for engraving when the events of 1815 blasted his hopes, for Neuchâtel was restored to
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
, and Robert was struck off the list of competitors as a foreigner. Whilst continuing his studies under Girardet he had never ceased to frequent the studio of
David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
, and he now determined to become a painter, and only returned to his native country when his master himself was exiled. At Neuchâtel he attracted the notice of Roullet de Mezerac, who enabled him by a timely loan to proceed to Rome. In depicting the customs and life of the people, of southern Italy especially, he showed peculiar feeling for the historical characteristics of their race.
After executing many detached studies of Italian life, Robert conceived the idea of painting four great works which should represent at one and the same time the four seasons in Italy and the four leading races of its people. In the ''Return from the Fête of the Madonna dell'Arco'' (
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
) he depicted the
Neapolitans and the spring. This picture, exhibited at the Salon of 1827, achieved undoubted success and was bought for the
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
by
Charles X Charles X may refer to:
* Charles X of France (1757–1836)
* Charles X Gustav (1622–1660), King of Sweden
* Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon (1523–1590), recognized as Charles X of France but renounced the royal title
See also
*
* King Charle ...
; but the work which appeared in 1831, the ''Summer Reapers arriving in the Pontine Marshe'' (Louvre), which became the property of
Louis Phillippe, established the artist's reputation.
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
and her autumn vineyards should now have furnished him with his third subject. He attempted to begin it, but, unable to conquer his passion for
Princess Charlotte Bonaparte (then mourning the violent death of
her husband, Robert's devoted friend), he threw up his work and went to
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, where he began and carried through the fourth of the series, the ''Fishers of the Adriatic''. This work was not equal to the ''Reapers''. Worn by the vicissitudes of painful feeling, and bitterly discouraged, Robert committed suicide before his easel on 20 March 1835, on the tenth anniversary of the melancholy suicide of a brother to whom he had been much attached. He is buried in the Protestant section of the
San Michele cemetery on the island of
Isola di San Michele
The Island of San Michele (, ; ) is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, Veneto, northern Italy. The island contains San Michele in Isola, a Roman Catholic church, as well as the San Michele Cemetery, Venice’s principal cemetery. It is associate ...
in Venice.
There are a number of references to Robert's paintings in the novel ''
The Count of Monte Cristo
''The Count of Monte Cristo'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Alexandre Dumas. It was serialised from 1844 to 1846, and published in book form in 1846. It is one of his most popular works, along with ''The Three Musketeers'' (184 ...
'' by
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright.
His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...
, one being specifically to ''The Reapers''.
Works
*''
Brigand and His Wife in Prayer''
References
*
* Villot, ''Notice des tableaux du Louvre''
* C Blanc, ''Hist. des peintres''
* Feuillet de Conches, '
* Julius Meyer, ''Gesch. mod. Jr. Malerei''
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robert, Louis Leopold
1794 births
1835 deaths
Burials at Isola di San Michele
19th-century French painters
French male painters
People from La Chaux-de-Fonds
1830s suicides
19th-century French male artists
People from the Principality of Neuchâtel
Artists who died by suicide