Robert, Hubert (1733–1808)

French painter and garden designer. In both his paintings and his garden designs he made frequent use of Italian motifs.

At 21, Robert was taken to Italy by his patron, the future duc de Choiseul. Influenced by Giovanni Panini and Giambattista Piranesi, in Rome he painted many pictures of classical ruins, real and imaginary. He became friendly with the French rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, with whom he painted in the gardens of the Villa d'Este for the dilettante Abbé de Saint Non, each having some influence on the other in style.

Returning to Paris 1765, he made prolific use of his Italian studies in pictures, decorative panels, and in a classical–Romantic style of garden design. He was garden designer to the king 1778, and in 1784 was made keeper of the royal art collection and lodged in the Louvre. Imprisoned during the Revolution (when he sketched prison scenes), he was released after the fall of the Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre and later painted a number of pictures of Paris.