14th Jun, 2023 12:00

Fine Paintings and Works on Paper

 
  Lot 10
 

10

FRENCH SCHOOL (17TH CENTURY)

THE FINDING OF MOSES
oil on canvas
95.6 x 138cm; 38 x 54 1/2in
126 x 157cm; 49 1/2 x 61 3/4in (framed)

Property of a Gentleman, London

Provenance:
Frederick Willis Farrer, London (d.1909; F.W. Farrer worked for the family legal firm, Farrer & Co. in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was the son-in-law of the painter George Richmond)
Sale, Christie's London, 23 June 1916, lot 108 (as Claude Lorraine; sold by order of the trustees of the estate of the above together with another painting: A hilly landscape with peasants, cattle and sheep by a stream)
Arthur Richmond Farrer, London (son of the above; purchased at the above sale)
Sale, Phillips London, 28 April 1987, lot 65 (as Circle of Gaspard Poussin, called Gaspard Dughet)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Exhibited:
Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930, 1994, p. 33, fig. 2 (as by Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy; illustrated in the catalogue)

The present work has been the subject of much scholarly debate. When first recorded at auction in 1916 it was considered to be by Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), when offered for sale in 1987 it was attributed to Circle of Gaspard Poussin, called Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675). Since 1987 a range of attributions have been proffered, mostly to French hands of the 17th century. In 1994, when it was a feature of the Egyptomania exhibition in Ottawa it was catalogued as by Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy (1611-1668), an attribution put forward by Pierre Rosenberg; another suggestion is that it could be by Francisque Millet III (1697-1777). More recently the name of Dutch painter Johannes Glauber (1656-c.1703) has been proposed.

Iconographically the figures in the composition bear striking similarities to the work of Francisque Millet I (1642-79). The woman kneeling with arms outstretched to the left of the baby Moses compares with the corresponding figure in the etching by Theodore after the painting by Millet I (Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin). The female figure standing behind Moses who gestures towards the child also adopts the pose of the woman standing almost in the river in Theodore's etching.

Concerning references to the Antique, the obelisk on the left of the composition derives from the the obelisk in front of the church of St John Lateran, Rome - one of the nineteen obelisks brought back from Egypt by Hadrian. Its ornamentation shows the cartouches of King Tuthmosis III of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The inscriptions in the roundel are taken, in part at least, from the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo, Rome. The two statues are the Antinous now in the Museo Gregorio in the Vatican. The pyramid shown on the right is the tomb of Caius Cestius, which stands in what is now the English cemetery in Rome. The brass trumpet-like object on the ground is the rattle of Osiris, the Egyptian mother-god. The winged creatures in the sky appear to reference the flying serpents sent by God on the grumbling Israelites and the ibis Moses used to put down the birds.












Unsold

 

THE FINDING OF MOSES
oil on canvas
95.6 x 138cm; 38 x 54 1/2in
126 x 157cm; 49 1/2 x 61 3/4in (framed)

Property of a Gentleman, London

Provenance:
Frederick Willis Farrer, London (d.1909; F.W. Farrer worked for the family legal firm, Farrer & Co. in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was the son-in-law of the painter George Richmond)
Sale, Christie's London, 23 June 1916, lot 108 (as Claude Lorraine; sold by order of the trustees of the estate of the above together with another painting: A hilly landscape with peasants, cattle and sheep by a stream)
Arthur Richmond Farrer, London (son of the above; purchased at the above sale)
Sale, Phillips London, 28 April 1987, lot 65 (as Circle of Gaspard Poussin, called Gaspard Dughet)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Exhibited:
Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930, 1994, p. 33, fig. 2 (as by Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy; illustrated in the catalogue)

The present work has been the subject of much scholarly debate. When first recorded at auction in 1916 it was considered to be by Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), when offered for sale in 1987 it was attributed to Circle of Gaspard Poussin, called Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675). Since 1987 a range of attributions have been proffered, mostly to French hands of the 17th century. In 1994, when it was a feature of the Egyptomania exhibition in Ottawa it was catalogued as by Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy (1611-1668), an attribution put forward by Pierre Rosenberg; another suggestion is that it could be by Francisque Millet III (1697-1777). More recently the name of Dutch painter Johannes Glauber (1656-c.1703) has been proposed.

Iconographically the figures in the composition bear striking similarities to the work of Francisque Millet I (1642-79). The woman kneeling with arms outstretched to the left of the baby Moses compares with the corresponding figure in the etching by Theodore after the painting by Millet I (Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin). The female figure standing behind Moses who gestures towards the child also adopts the pose of the woman standing almost in the river in Theodore's etching.

Concerning references to the Antique, the obelisk on the left of the composition derives from the the obelisk in front of the church of St John Lateran, Rome - one of the nineteen obelisks brought back from Egypt by Hadrian. Its ornamentation shows the cartouches of King Tuthmosis III of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The inscriptions in the roundel are taken, in part at least, from the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo, Rome. The two statues are the Antinous now in the Museo Gregorio in the Vatican. The pyramid shown on the right is the tomb of Caius Cestius, which stands in what is now the English cemetery in Rome. The brass trumpet-like object on the ground is the rattle of Osiris, the Egyptian mother-god. The winged creatures in the sky appear to reference the flying serpents sent by God on the grumbling Israelites and the ibis Moses used to put down the birds.