Dichtgemetseld Gothisch portaal 1754 - 1808

Hubert Robert made this drawing of a bricked-up gothic portal in brown wash on paper. It presents a vision of architectural decay, a popular theme in late 18th-century France. Robert, who trained at the French Academy in Rome, often depicted the remains of ancient Roman structures overgrown with vegetation. Here, he turns his eye to the gothic, an architectural style then seen as outdated. We see a portal that has been deliberately sealed, its columns and arches now crumbling and colonized by nature. The image reflects a broader cultural interest in ruins, which became fashionable among wealthy Europeans. These ruins functioned as picturesque reminders of mortality, and the transience of human achievement. Artists like Robert catered to this taste, creating images that spoke to changing attitudes toward history and the past. To understand the drawing fully, we can look at the rise of antiquarianism, the development of landscape painting, and the changing social status of the artist in pre-revolutionary France.