If Hubert Robert was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth his at least was silver-gilt. His parents were personal assistants to the diplomat and courtier the Marquis de Stainville and the Marquise, and so he grew up as an adjunct to a high status family. The connection gave him both access to a classical education and an entrée into an aristocratic world of would-be patrons. Where others might be awed, throughout his career Robert was known for the easy way, learned in youth, he conducted himself with the nobility.
Nevertheless, Robert (1733-1808) possessed all the qualities for success: one female admirer described him as “A man of wit and taste who paints, not a painter”, while the portraitist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun thought him “the most amiable man one could encounter in society”. She also astutely noted his “extreme facility that can be judged either fortunate or fatal: he painted a picture as quickly as he wrote a letter; but when he chose to master his talents, his works were often perfect”.
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