Where to See The Bird Nester: Scottish National Gallery

Jean-Antoine Watteau painted The Bird Nester around 1710 in his characteristic Rococo style. Also known as The Robber of the Sparrow's Nest, this small oil painting shows a young couple with a dog sitting near a sparrow's nest. The scene captures aristocratic leisure with delicate brushwork and soft colors.

Measuring just 23.17 by 18.7 centimeters, it is one of Watteau's rare surviving arabesques. His feathery brushstrokes and pastel hues would influence generations of painters, including Boucher and Fragonard. Now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.

This painting hangs at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. The museum holds an important collection of European paintings from the Renaissance through the 19th century.

The painting exemplifies the Rococo style that Watteau helped define. His delicate brushwork, pastel colors, and elegant scenes of aristocratic leisure became hallmarks of this 18th-century movement.

The scene shows a young couple with a dog gathered near a sparrow's nest, capturing a moment of pastoral leisure. It's one of Watteau's rare surviving arabesques, small decorative works featuring whimsical subjects.

The Bird Nester

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More by Jean-Antoine Watteau

Faun

The Foursome

The Monkey Sculptor

Study of a Woman's Head

Also at Scottish National Gallery

The Marne at Chennevieres

The Skating Minister (The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch)

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

The Adoration of the Kings

Savoyard with a marmot

Cajoler

The Recreations of War

The Swing

The Bathers

Mr. and Mrs. Andrews

The Happy Lovers

An Unknown Couple in a Landscape

Diana getting out of her bath

Diana Leaving the Bath

Cornard Wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk

Head of a Woman from Behind

About The Bird Nester

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