Hubert Rober is a French landscape painter known for his pictures of antique ruins and idealized nature. Landscape ‘Ermenonville. Topoline Island “is one of four picturesque paintings that were acquired by Vorontsov in 1852. The composition depicts a picturesque corner in the estate of the Marquis René de Girarden. The marquis was a fan of the famous philosopher of the age of Renaissance - Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Inspired by the description of the gardens in Russo 's novel “Julia, or New Eloise, ” the Marquis wished to have a similar park. The area to the north of Paris, which used to be a deep forest surrounded by swamps and sands, was transformed by French architect Morel in the 1770s. After that landscape parks become popular in Europe. Russo 's ideas partly encouraged it.
Like Russo, Robert saw civilization as a destructive force and was fascinated by humanity 's “golden age” - antiquity. For his activities as a gardener-decorator, Robert was awarded the title of “Paint Maker of Royal Gardens.” He developed his own techniques in the production of wood scenes, planning of artificial ruins and the multi-dimensional construction of background.
Robert took the most active part in the creation of a number of landscape parks, including Ermenonville. The most interesting place of the park was a man-made landscape called “Desert.” Its main decoration was Topoliniy Island (Poplar island) artificially created in the middle of the Lake - a favorite place of walking for Russo, and then - a place where he was buried. The thinker spent the last months of his life at the Girarden Manor, where he died on 2 July 1778. From this time on, the elegiac description of Russo 's tombstone is often found in Robert 's works. Both the philosopher and the artist idolized nature, which occupied the main place in their work.
In the foreground of the paintings there’re green trees with emerald foliage. In the shade of the tree, people are having fun. They are carefree and do not notice the passage of time which flies like the flows of the cascade depicted behind. The state of joy is gradually replaced by melancholy sadness: the glance, unwillingly dwells on the sarcophagus, barely visible in the shadow of the trees, then on the ruins of the temple with columns. ‘Among the joys of life, do not forget the destructive power of nature’. This is the philosophical meaning of the pictureю
Like Russo, Robert saw civilization as a destructive force and was fascinated by humanity 's “golden age” - antiquity. For his activities as a gardener-decorator, Robert was awarded the title of “Paint Maker of Royal Gardens.” He developed his own techniques in the production of wood scenes, planning of artificial ruins and the multi-dimensional construction of background.
Robert took the most active part in the creation of a number of landscape parks, including Ermenonville. The most interesting place of the park was a man-made landscape called “Desert.” Its main decoration was Topoliniy Island (Poplar island) artificially created in the middle of the Lake - a favorite place of walking for Russo, and then - a place where he was buried. The thinker spent the last months of his life at the Girarden Manor, where he died on 2 July 1778. From this time on, the elegiac description of Russo 's tombstone is often found in Robert 's works. Both the philosopher and the artist idolized nature, which occupied the main place in their work.
In the foreground of the paintings there’re green trees with emerald foliage. In the shade of the tree, people are having fun. They are carefree and do not notice the passage of time which flies like the flows of the cascade depicted behind. The state of joy is gradually replaced by melancholy sadness: the glance, unwillingly dwells on the sarcophagus, barely visible in the shadow of the trees, then on the ruins of the temple with columns. ‘Among the joys of life, do not forget the destructive power of nature’. This is the philosophical meaning of the pictureю
