The Finding of Moses

1655 · National Gallery of Art, Washington

religious

In representing this Biblical tale of compassion for the helpless, the artist, concerned with providing a historically accurate setting, has included palm trees and ancient temples in the background landscape. Trained primarily in Rome, Bourdon spent most of his successful career in Paris and Stockholm, where he was court painter to the Queen of Sweden. An eclectic, he worked in a variety of contemporary styles and here the artist has adapted and elaborated a composition by Poussin, who represented the subject at least three times.

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About the Artist

Sébastien Bourdon

1616 – 1671

French painter. In 1634-7 he worked in Rome, where he developed a talent for imitating the work of other painters - Claude, Dughet, van Laer - sometimes probably with intent to deceive. He continued in this vein when he returned to France and his oeuvre is still ill-defined. From 1652 to 1654 he was court painter to Queen Christina of Sweden, of whom he did two portraits (Prado, Madrid, and National Museum, Stockholm), and after his return to France he worked mainly as a portraitist, developing a more personal style in which soft tonalities and skilful play with cascading draperies create a languorous, romantic effect (Self-portrait, Louvre, Paris).

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