Hubert Robert was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.
Hubert Robert by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
The Artist's Studio, 1760, Städelsches Kunstinstitut
The Artist in His Cell (1793), ink, wash, watercolor, and chalk, 22.7 x 32.7 cm., Musée Carnavalet
A Hermit Praying in the Ruins of a Roman Temple
In painting, a capriccio is an architectural fantasy, placing together buildings, archaeological ruins and other architectural elements in fictional and often fantastical combinations. These paintings may also include staffage (figures). Capriccio falls under the more general term of landscape painting. This style of painting was introduced in the Renaissance and continued into the Baroque.
Fantasy view with the Pantheon and other monuments of Ancient Rome, 1737, by Giovanni Paolo Panini
Woman and infant satyr in a landscape, from the etching series 'Capricci' by GB Tiepolo
Anthony Devis, An Italian Capriccio. in pen and ink
Architectural Capriccio with Christ and Disciples attributed to François de Nomé, 17th century