An artist whose subjects ranged from portraits to classical ruins, Hubert Robert is also remembered for the liveliness of his personality, his prolific drawings and paintings, and his adventurous spirit. Among his works are romantic, allegorical landscape scenes, often of the French countryside, and also views of Rome and Paris. One of them, Grand Galerie of the Louvre in Ruins was a fantasy, but another, Hotel Dieu in Flames, was from an on-site sketch of the event.

He exhibited numerous times at the Salons, and his work was very popular with aristocratic, prominent persons, likely helped by the fact that his father, Nicolas Robert, was an upper-servant to the Marquis of Choiseul-Stainvil...