Pierre Albert Roberti, Queen and Regent of France, freeing prisoners, 1847

Pierre Albert Roberti (Brussels 13/07/1811 - Leuven 18/12/1864),
Blanche of Castile, Queen and Regent of France, freeing prisoners, 1847.

Exhibited
Paris, 1847, Salon des Beaux-Arts (n°1384).
Bruxelles, 1848, Exposition nationale des Beaux-Arts (n°767).

Albert Roberti , both for his paintings, presented at the Salons of Fine Art in France and in Belgium, and for his teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Brussels.
His large history painting Blanche of Castile, Queen and regent of France, freeing
prisoners, exhibited at the 1847 Paris Salon des Beaux-Arts, and the following year in Brussels, is characteristic of Albert Roberti’s style. The Belgian painter depicted the tragic episode of the emprisoned peasants of the cities of Châtenay and Orly, being freed by the monarch as a peaceful scene. The conflict was resolved in calm and with serenity. The painting gives a model of virtuous behavior worthy of emulation following the neoclassical theory and the guideline of his master François-Joseph Navez (1787-1869).



Born in Brussels, Albert Roberti trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels from 1834 to 1836.1 He also entered François-Joseph Navez’s private studio,
the most accomplished painter of that time thanks to the long-standing ties between Navez and his mother, Marie Thérèse Roberti (1787-?). A portrait of Madame Roberti painted by François-Joseph Navez dated from 1831 is
owned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Charleroi. François-Joseph Navez was Jacques-Louis David’s student in Paris and when he went into exile in
Brussels. As Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels from 1835 until 1854, François-Joseph Navez taught to the majority of the great Belgian artists of the XIXth century.


The present painting dates from the Paris period of Albert Roberti. It represents Queen Blanche of Castile (1188-1252), mother of futur king Louis IX commonly revered as Saint Louis, as a powerful historical figure from the end of the XIIth and beginning of the XIIIth centuries. More precisely, this episode of the freeing of the serfs, prisoners at the chapter house of Notre-Dame de Paris, that featured the role of the compassionate Queen inspired many artists. This episode held Roberti’s interest as previously that of French painter François-Marius Granet (1801).