ROBERT, Léopold, a distinguished French painter, was born in 1794, at Chaux-de-Fonds in Neuchâtel. From his earliest years a strong love for design characterized him. The commercial profession, to which he was apprenticed, was given up in disgust. He was not content until he was sent to Paris to study art. There he laboured with unwearied assiduity under Girardet the engraver and David the painter. Nor did his ardour abate when he found himself a poor and solitary student at Rome. The prosecution of his art was the only subject that he allowed to engross his mind. He patiently employed all the advantages of the place to perfect himself both in theory and in execution. He especially laboured to catch the traits of
Italian scenery, life, and character. The consequence of Robertson's these devoted efforts was, that the connoisseurs in Paris were soon charmed with the fresh and faithful sketches which Robert sent home to the yearly exhibitions in the salon of the Louvre. Among others, his "Neapolitan Improvisator," in 1824; his "Madonna dell' Arco," in 1827; and his "Reapers," in 1831, continued to increase his reputation. He had attained the highest place in his own particular walk, and his latest work, "The Fishermen," was exciting great admiration in Paris, when the intelligence arrived that he had committed suicide at Venice in a fit of melancholy on the 20th March 1835.