The Nest Robber

Prints and Drawings

1780s

Hubert Robert
French, 1733-1808

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.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Hubert Robert
Title: The Nest Robber
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1780–1789
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
Inscriptions: Inscribed on the stone to the left: "SIC VOS/ NON VOBIS/ NIDIFICATIS/ AVES"
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.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.1013
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/213933/manifest.json

Jean de Cayeux, Hubert Robert (Paris 1989), p. 333.

Valence, Musée des Beaux-Arts, “Hubert Robert (1733-1808) et Saint-Pétersbourg, les commandes de la famille Impériale et des princes russes entre 1773 et 1802,” 1999, cat. 49.
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” Mar. 15-June 15, 2014, no cat.

Galerie Cailleux, Paris, 1989 [stamp, not in Lugt]. Sold, Sotheby’s, New York, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA, Jan. 25, 2012; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.