When the twenty-one-year-old French artist Hubert Robert arrived in Rome in 1754, he was drawn to the Eternal City’s ancient architecture and ruins. This sheet, however, reveals his fascination with a masterpiece still in the making. The image documents a stage in the construction of the Trevi Fountain (1732–62). The sculptural rocks in the basin are surmounted by wooden scaffolding and fencing while a tarp covers the unfinished central figural group.
Hubert Robert, The South Façade of the Palazzo Poli with the Trevi Fountain under Construction, ca. 1860–61, red chalk, 323 x 447 mm. Gift of Mrs. Allerton Cushman in honor of Janos Scholz and the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Library, 1973.51.