The Nest Robber

1780·Red chalk, with touches of orange chalk, with touches of pen and brown ink, on cream laid paper, incised with a compass, laid down on blue wove board·Primary support: 36.3 × 28.7 cm (14 5/16 × 11 5/16 in.); Secondary support: 44.5 × 37 cm (17 9/16 × 14 5/8 in.)

<p>Hubert Robert began drawing red chalk landscapes as a student in Italy and continued to do so throughout his life, drawing from nature and from his imagination. This charming drawing from his mature career offers a Rococo amorous theme favored by Robert’s predecessors Antoine Watteau and François Boucher—that of bird-catching. The inscription on the rock is from Virgil and translates to “So you not for yourselves build nests, O birds,” a call to be unselfish with one’s creations.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1780
Medium: Red chalk, with touches of orange chalk, with touches of pen and brown ink, on cream laid paper, incised with a compass, laid down on blue wove board
Dimensions: Primary support: 36.3 × 28.7 cm (14 5/16 × 11 5/16 in.); Secondary support: 44.5 × 37 cm (17 9/16 × 14 5/8 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Hubert Robert

Artist

Hubert Robert

Painting

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.

Paris, France

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