An ink and watercolor drawing of two figures using a plank of wood and the remains of a column as a seesaw, surrounded by Classical architectural and sculptural ruins.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

An ink and watercolor drawing of two figures using a plank of wood and the base of an ancient column as a seesaw. One figure sits at the bottom of the seesaw, while the other is raised in the air with one arm raised. To the lest is a large statue of a muscular nude male figure leaning against a column. On the right, the ruins of two columns on a pedestal tower high above the figures and other ruins along the ground. In the background, there is an intact temple structure and the view of a city in the distance.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1956.250
People
Hubert Robert, French (Paris 1733 - 1808 Paris)
Title
The See-Saw
Other Titles
Original Language Title: La Bascule
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1786
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/296650

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink, brown wash, and watercolor over traces of black chalk on off-white antique laid paper, framing lines in black ink, laid down on cream antique laid paper with blue antique laid paper borders adhered to face
Dimensions
44.8 × 32.5 cm (17 5/8 × 12 13/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: signed, in drawing, on tomb, lower right, gray wash: Robert
  • inscription: in drawing, on tomb, lower right, gray wash: QUI SE / EXALTAT / HUMILIAEIT / ET QUI SE / HUMILIAEIT [illegible] / UXALTABITUR
  • inscription: signed, in drawing, on tomb, lower right, gray wash: Robert
  • watermark: none visible; laid down

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Charles E. Dunlap, New York; Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Charles E. Dunlap, inv. no. 1956.250

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Charles E. Dunlap
Accession Year
1956
Object Number
1956.250
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • French Painting, 1100-1900, exh. cat., Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, 1951), cat. no. 153, n.p.
  • Victor Carlson, Hubert Robert: Drawings & Watercolors , exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, 1978-1979), cat. no. 56, pp. 138-39
  • Jutta Held, Monument und Volk: Vorrevolutionäre Wahrnehmung in Bildern des Ausgehenden Ancien Régime, Böhlau Verlag (Cologne, 1990), p. 494
  • Alvin L. Clark, Jr., "To Delight the Eye": French Drawings and Paintings from the Collection of Charles E. Dunlap, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 2005), cat. no. 28, p. 8
  • Nina L. Dubin, Futures & Ruins: Eighteenth-Century Paris and the Art of Hubert Robert, Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles, 2010), p. 187
  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth and Elizabeth M. Rudy, ed., Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2017), p. 165, repr. p. 166 as fig. 2
  • Alvin L. Clark, Jr. and Edouard Kopp, French Drawings from the Age of Claude, Poussin, Watteau, and Fragonard: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2022), cat. no. 95, repr.

Exhibition History

  • French Painting, 1100-1900, Carnegie Institute, 10/18/1951 - 12/02/1951
  • Hubert Robert: Drawings & Watercolors, National Gallery of Art, 11/19/1978 - 01/21/1979
  • "To Delight the Eye": French Drawings and Paintings from the Collection of Charles E. Dunlap, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/17/2005 - 03/12/2006
  • Around Antique: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs (Teaching Gallery) S421, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/14/2010 - 09/04/2010
  • 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/19/2015 - 05/05/2016
  • Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/16/2022 - 01/15/2023

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu