The Robber of the Sparrow's Nest (Le Dénicheur de moineaux) is an oil painting by the French Rococo artist Antoine Watteau, now in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. Variously dated between 1709 and 1716, the painting is a pastoral scene that is one of a few extant arabesques in Watteau's art; it shows a young couple with a dog, sitting at a sparrow's nest; it has been thought to be influenced by Flemish Baroque painting, exactly by Peter Paul Rubens' painting from the Marie de' Medici cycle.

In the 18th century, The Robber of the Sparrow's Nest was once in the collection of Watteau's friend and patron Jean de Jullienne; passing through a number of private owners, it came into possession of the Scottish landscape painter Hugh William Williams by the early 19th century; in 1860, the latter's widow donated the painting to the National Gallery of Scotland.

Exhibition history

List of exhibitions featuring the work
Year Title Location Cat. no.
1909 National Loan Exhibition Grafton Galleries, London 17
1949 Landscape in French Art Royal Academy of Arts, London 101
2001 Scottish Treasures National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 15
General reference: Eidelberg 2020.

Bibliography

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