The Landing Place

The Landing Place is one of four works commissioned to decorate a salon in the château of Jean-Joseph, Marquis de Laborde, a successful financier. This view is dominated by an immense colonnade, in front of which several people are shown departing in a pleasure boat while others linger at the water’s edge. As he constructed this fantasy, Hubert Robert included direct references to renowned antique monuments, combining them with elements of his own invention. The perspective and scale of Robert’s four painted architectural fantasies were coordinated with the proportions of the room to give the illusion of a vast, open space.