The Stag Hunt, from Pastoral Hunting Scenes (c. 1775): Artwork and History

The Stag Hunt, from Pastoral Hunting Scenes (c. 1775) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as After a design by an unknown artist after an engraving by Jacques Philippe Lebas (1707–1783) after Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668), c. 1766 Presumably woven at the workshop of Léonard Roby (active c. 1750–c. 1789) France, Aubusson.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Part of an Aubusson set depicting peaceful hunting episodes, this tapestry illustrates a stag hunt in an autumn landscape. The scene is based on an engraving titled The Hunt in the Italian Manner (La chasse à l’italienne) by Jacques-Philippe Lebas (1707–1783), which was itself engraved after a painting by the 17th-century Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668). The series contained at least five other scenes: Falconers Resting, Departure for the Hunt, The Heron Hunt, The Fortunate Hunter, and a final scene that remains unknown. The delicate imagery and fragile style of the series epitomize the idealized depiction of everyday events that was so popular with the upper class and thus dominated 18th-century French art. This manner, now known as Regency or Rococo, emerged around 1690 to 1700. It was promulgated by artists who aimed to break with tradition, as the contemporary name for the style—goût moderne, or goût du temps—reveals.

Object facts

• Title: The Stag Hunt, from Pastoral Hunting Scenes
• Date: c. 1775
• Artist attribution: After a design by an unknown artist after an engraving by Jacques Philippe Lebas (1707–1783) after Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668), c. 1766 Presumably woven at the workshop of Léonard Roby (active c. 1750–c. 1789) France, Aubusson
• Place of origin: Aubusson
• Medium: Wool and silk, slit and double interlocking tapestry weave
• Dimensions: 268.6 × 281.7 cm (105 3/4 × 110 7/8 in.)
• Type: Textile
• Department: Textiles
• Reference number: 1958.523

Collection credit

Gift of Alice H. Patterson

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.