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The Finding of Moses Nicolas Poussin

Artist

Nicolas Poussin Les Andelys, 1594 – Rome, 1665

Culture French
Date ca. 1647
Object type drawing
Medium, technique pen, brush, brown ink, wash on paper
Dimensions

161 × 245 mm

Inventory number 2881
Collection Prints and Drawings
On view This artwork is not on display

Poussin painted three versions of the Old Testament scene in which the Pharaoh’s daughter and her attendants find the child Moses in a basket floating on the waters of the Nile and rescue him. This drawing is one of the studies for a painting executed in 1647 for the banker Pointel; the painting and two further drawings related to it can now be found in the Louvre, Paris. On the balanced composition of the Budapest sketch, built up by strong effects of light and shade, the cenral figure of the infant Moses is surrounded by a group of female figures; the river god personifying the Nile can be seen to the right of them, while the scene is blocked by the standing man steering a boat on the left.

This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.

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