Starting in the late 1760s, Sweden’s Peter Adolf Hall enjoyed great success in Paris as a portrait miniaturist. He rapidly became acquainted with the foremost French artists, one of whom was Hubert Robert, famed for his picturesque semi-fictitious pictures of ruins and monuments. This pastel portrait of him was shown at the Salon in 1775. It aroused a great deal of attention, being praised by Diderot for its “surprising likeness”.