Washerwomen in a Ruined Gallery. Artist: Hubert Robert (French, Paris 1733-1808 Paris). Dimensions: 8 5/8 x 10 7/8 in. (22.1 x 27.6 cm). Date: ca. 1760.This dramatic, quasi-abstract wash drawing is Hubert Robert's first idea for a composition known through a canvas in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. In the painting one can make out more clearly the industrious group of laundresses who tend a steaming pot on a rustic fire. Just behind them, white fabrics are hung to dry, illuminated by sunlight pouring in through a doorway on the left. The contrast between the ruined ancient arcade, a triumph of an earlier era, and the mundane task for which the space has been appropriated, is a characteristic theme for the artist. His skill at rendering classical architecture is on display, as is his poetic sensibility, inspiring reverie on the passage of time. The brusque handling of the wash is unusual for Robert, and as a result, the attribution of the sheet was doubted from the ti