Drawings
Moses Placed in the Ark of the Bulrushes
- Date
- ca. 1824
- Accession number
- 000.28
- Maker
- William Blake(Opens in new tab) (British, 1757–1827)
- Dimensions
- 11 1/4 x 15 5/8 in. (28.6 x 39.7 cm.) sheet: 11 1/4 x 15 5/8 in. (28.6 x 39.7 cm.)
- Medium
- pen and watercolor over pencil on laid paper
- Description
- The work is unfinished, for Moses and his ark are only sketched in pencil. Rossetti 1863, 224, No. 114, and 1880, 236, No. 137, describes a tempera painting of this scene, probably executed ca. 1799-1800 (untraced since 1863; Butlin 1981, No. 385). Some twenty-five years later, Blake engraved a small plate of the same design as the Huntington watercolor for an annual, probably edited by Robert John Thornton, titled Remember Me! A New Years Gift or Christmas Present (London, 1825). [1] The watercolor would appear to be related to this later project, perhaps as a preliminary to the engraving, in spite of the enormous differences in size, or as a separate, unfinished rendering of the same design commissioned by Thornton or Linnell. As Butlin 1981, 538, points out, "the relatively loose technique, particularly the dappled brush-strokes of the water and the robe of Moses' father, suggests a latish date." [2] A proof of the engraving in the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, with an image 7 x 11.1 cm. and inscribed "The Hiding of Moses," does not extend quite as far on the left margin. There are a number of differences between it and the watercolor, including changes in the buildings beneath the pyramids and the addition of smoking chimneys on the left, more bulrushes around Moses, a burst of radiance in the sky above and to the left of the man's head, and vegetation at the base of the palm on the right. The image was further trimmed, along the left and bottom margins, to 6.8 x 9.7 cm. for publication in the small duodecimo window. The design illustrates the events of Exodus 2:1-4. Moses' mother, Jochebed, has already placed the infant in "an ark of bulrushes,…and laid it in the flags by the river's bank" (2:3). She sinks against her husband, Amram, in weariness and concern for the child's fate. As Baker 1957, 37, indicates, the postures of Moses' parents are very similar to those of Joseph and Mary in "The Descent of Peace" among Blake's illustrations to Milton's "Nativity Ode" (see 000.14). This visual echo follows the traditional typological relationship between the beginning of Moses' life and Christ's. In this context, the large palm near the right margin may have its customary significance as an emblem of resolve in the midst of adversity [3] and Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Moses' sister, Miriam, stands like a statute on the wall extending into the Nile, "to wit what would be done to him" (2:4). In Blake's mythological poetry, Egypt is cast as a place of slavery and its culture a fallen and perverted form of rational materialism. Although neither the sphinx nor the distant pyramids seem obviously sinister in the watercolor, most scholars have interpreted the scene in the light of Blake's written statements about Egypt. Roe 1969, 179, states that the "subject" of the design is "the commencement of Man's journey through the Fallen World of Generation" and treats it as an illustration of Blake's own poetry on that theme. Bindman 1977, 121, places the design in the context of Blake's other pictorial treatments of Moses (see Butlin 1981, Nos. 49, 111-15, 385-87, 440-41, 445, 447, 449, perhaps 757) and takes its central theme to be "the fate of prophecy." Bindman also suggests (127-28) the influence of Poussin's "Exhibition of Moses," exhibited in London in 1799 (i.e., at about the same time Blake probably painted the lost tempera version). Butlin 1981, 538, notes that some of the low buildings across the river are "brick-kilns" in the engraving. This detail associates the design with Blake's image of "Minute Particulars in slavery…among the brick-kilns/ Disorganiz'd, & …Pharoh in his iron Court." [4] Notes 1. A prospectus indicates that publication plans, and very probably Blake's engraving were well underway in 1824 (Bentley 1977, 606). Todd 1971, 127, suggests that an entry in John Linnell's account book for 6 July 1823, "Cash by Dr Thornton's order WB £5.5s." (Bentley 1969, 604), may be payment for the plate. For the plate, see Part III, section B, No. 40. 2. Baker 1957, 37, suggests that "the drawing may have been made several years earlier" than the engraving. Klonsky 1977, 68, dates the watercolor to ca. 1800, but gives no reasons for what may be simply an error. 3. See Blake 1982, 318, lines 10 and 25 ("Bulls of Luvah" and "Lions of Urizen"); 331, line 10 (Tharmas compares himself to a "famishd Eagle"). These passages support neither Damon's identifications (1965, 151) of the figures on the Genesis title page as Lucah, Urthona, Urizen, and Tharmas, nor Nanavutty's list (139-40 in the 1973 reprint) of Urthona, Urizen, Luvah, Tharmas (both reading left to right). But Blake himself was not consistent in his associations of the Zoas with various animals. For example, "Luvah in Oc became a Serpent" (Blake 1982, 380, line 26), a statement supporting Damon's identification of the scaly figure far left as Luvah. 4. Jerusalem (ca. 1804-20), Pl. 89, lines 17-18 (Blake 1982, 248).
- Credit
- The Huntington
- Department
- European Art
- Find out more
- View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)
Moses' mother, Jochebed, sinks against her husband, Amram, after placing her infant son in the ark (Exodus 2). The prophet's sister, Miriam, stands statue-like on the wall in the middle distance. For Blake, Egypt was a place of slavery and its culture a perverted form of rational materialism, here symbolized by the pyramids. This unfinished work (note the uncolored state of Moses and his ark) may have been prompted by a commission for a book illustration.
