Studio RT Ltd

Description

This is a wonderfully descriptive large watercolour, that is, unfortunately, unsigned. We have discovered that it is a very good pastiche of an oil painting by Paul Delaroche, (1797-1857) which was painted for Baron James de Rothschild in 1853. The original painting has vanished without trace, apparently, but there is a very good line engraving made in 1856 by Louis Pierre Henriquel Dupont (1797-1892), who was the best engraver in France at the time. The painting was also engraved onto wood by Smyth and appeared in The Illustrated London News. The painting was called Moise expose sur le Nil, or, literally, Moses on view or exposed on the Nile. There is a very extensive biography of Delaroche on wikipedia.

It depicts the story of Moses which is narrated in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. The Egyptians had enslaved the Hebrews and, fearful of an uprising, the Pharaoh decreed that all the Hebrew baby boys should be drowned. One mother was determined to hide her child and hid him until he was about 3 months and had become too big to be hidden away, so she coated a wicker basket with tar and pitch, laid him in it, and hid it among the bulrushes along the banks of the Nile, setting his sister Miriam to watch over him.

The pharaoh's daughter came walking by with her maidservant and, catching sight of the basket, she told her maidservant to bring it to her. She realised that he was a Hebrew child, but was determined to keep him as her son. The maidservant suggested that she might need a nurse for the child and brought the mother of the child, who was given the job. The pharaoh's daughter adopted the child and gave him the name of Moses, as she said that she had found him in the water. However, in adulthood Moses remained true to his race and led the Hebrews out of Egypt to freedom.

We cannot, unfortunately, throw any light on the identity of the artist, as there is no signature or inscription anywhere on the front or reverse of the painting.

The painting has been newly double mounted in two-tone acid-free mountboard and is framed in a 1 3/4" ornate dull silver frame that complement the painting very well.

Image size: 22" x 15 1/2" - 55.9cm x 39.35cm

Frame size: 31 3/8" x 24 1/2" - 79.8cm x 62.2cm

Medium: Watercolours on paper

Condition: Very good, with no repairs or foxing. The mounts and frame are new.