The Empathy between Painters and Brigands

How insipid this artist must have found Swiss watchmakers or members of the French bourgeoisie in comparison with brigands of noble and ancient Italian descent whom the Pope himself had ordered deported to Rome from the village of Sonnino, amidst the mountains of Terracina! Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Louis-Léopold Robert (1794-1835) studied in Paris under Jacques-Louis David, and then moved to Rome. He was a famous artist during his lifetime – the French king Louis Philippe insisted on pinning the medal of the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur upon his chest in person – but he was quickly forgotten after his death. In his body of work, which helped establish the stereotype of a poor, hardworking Italy immune to the twin plagues of the esprit bourgeois and revolutionary Jacobinism, of particular note is his youthful cycle of paintings devoted to the brigands of southern Latium and their lovely Ciociare companions.