Alphonse ROBERT
 (Sèvres, 1807 – Sèvres, 1885)

 River of Italy

 Oil on canvas
 Signed lower left
 60 x 88 cm

 Porcelain painter and easel painter, Alphonse Robert was born in Sèvres on March 19, 1807 and is the son of Jean François Robert (1778-1870), director of the Manufacture de Sèvres and Louise Sophie Pithou (1776-1842). He is also the nephew of Pierre Remy Robert (1783-1832), chemist, who entered the Manufacture de Sèvres on January 1, 1815, head of the glass painting workshops, then guard of the Paris store from 1816 to 1822, who married Anne Caroline Olive Demarne (1789-1830), daughter of the painter Jean Louis Demarne (1752-1829). Their children included Louis Rémy Robert (1810-1882), a first cousin of Alphonse Robert, who worked as a chemist at the Manufacture de Sèvres in the glass painting workshop, then head of the painting and gilding workshops and finally director of the Manufacture from 1871 to 1879.

 Alphonse Robert was attached to the Manufacture de Sèvres from 1833 to 1837 as a landscape painter. He worked in particular on the Forestry service begun on January 10, 1834 following a program defined by Alexandre Brongniart. Some pieces from this service were offered in 1850 to Sultan Abdulmejid (1838-1861) and others were sent to the Ministry of the Navy. In parallel with his career at the Manufacture de Sèvres, Alphonse Robert also worked on easel painting and exhibited at the Salon of Paris, Valenciennes and Boulogne between 1827 and 1880 as a student of Léon Cogniet. He was also awarded a second class medal (landscape) in 1831.

 Two of his paintings were exhibited in the apartments of the Palais de Saint-Cloud:
 King’s Apartments – Council Chamber: View of the Grand Jet (Saint-Cloud Park), taken from the new path traced by the King
 Valois Pavilion – Bedroom: View taken in Jonquières (Oise)

 The artist died in Sèvres in 1885.