The painting shows a toga-clad orator, possibly in ancient Rome, as suggested by the Latin inscription in the background – though it ends with a reference to Hubert Robert himself and the year 1760. An autobiographical interpretation long led to the erroneous assumption that the work showed the artist when he was in prison during the 1793-1794 reign of terror. Its meaning is unknown, but it seems more likely to have been made in Rome in the 1760s.