Interpretation
Moses calls down destruction upon the pharaoh and his army, who pursued the Israelites as they departed from Egypt. The cloud or pillar that led the Israelites through the parted sea has turned destructive to the Egyptians, who are engulfed in the closing waters. Moses was not fated to see the destination of the Israelites, the Promised Land, except from the summit of Mt. Nebo, as they neared the end of forty years of wandering in the desert. This Biblical story was referred to in Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speech (April 3, 1968), in which he said that he had seen the Promised Land, and although he himself might not reach it, African Americans as a people would.
Betsy Rosasco, Research Curator of European Painting and Sculpture
Information
- Title
- Moses Commanding the Waters to Close upon the Egyptian Host
- Object Number
- y1978-37
- Maker
- Hippolyte Flandrin
- Medium
- Oil on cardboard
- Dates
- 1858
- Dimensions
- 48.5 x 57 cm (19 1/8 x 22 7/16 in.) frame: 61 × 71.4 × 6.1 cm (24 × 28 1/8 × 2 3/8 in.)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, Caroline G. Mather Fund
- Culture
- French
- Signatures
- Signed and dated lower right: Hte Flandrin 1858
- Catalogue des tableaux, esquisses, études, dessins & croquis laissés par H. Flandrin et quelques tableaux anciens: dont la vente aura lieu par suite de son décès Hôtel Drouot, salle n. 5, les lundi 15, mardi 16 et mercredi 17 mai 1865, (Paris: Impr. Pillet, 1865)., Room 5, no. 5
- Martin L. H. Reymert, et. al., Ingres & Delacriox through Degas & Puvis de Chavannes: the figure in French art, (New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1975)., no. 65 (illus.)
- Elzea Rowland and Betty Rowland, The Pre-Raphaelite era, 1848-1914: an exhibition in celebration of the Nation’s Bicentennial, April 12-June 6, 1976, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, (Wilmington, Delaware: Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, 1976)., p. 16; p. 17, fig. 1-13
- Jan G. Milner, French 19th century paintings, (London: Alpine Club Gallery, 1977)., no. 36
- The Second Empire, 1852-1870: art in France under Napoleon III, (Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1978)., no. VI-52 (illus.)
- John Minor Wisdom, French nineteenth century oil sketches: David to Degas, (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1978)., no. 31 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1978," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 38, no. 1 (1979): p. 14-38., p. 14
- Bruno Horaist, "Hippolyte Flandrin a Saint-Germain-des-Pres", Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de l’art français 1979/81 (1981): p. 211-232., p. 226, no. 60
- Martin L. H. Reymert and Robert J. F. Kashey, Christian imagery in French nineteenth century art 1789-1906, (New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1980)., cat. no. 80; p. 236-37 (illus.)
- Hippolyte, Auguste, et Paul Flandrin: Une fraternite picturale au XIXe, (Paris: Ministère de la culture, Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1984)., p. 143, no. 63; p. 142 (illus.)
- Jane Turner, The Dictionary of Art, (New York: Grove, 1996)., Vol. 11: p. 158
- Carlo Sisi and Ettore Spalletti, Nel segno di Ingres: Luigi Mussini e l'Accademia in Europa nell'Ottocento, (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2007)., cat. no. 76, p. 238, illus. p.239
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