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Moses Brought Before Pharaoh's Daughter

Image credit: Coram in the care of the Foundling Museum

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Notes

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Hogarth produced this painting in 1746 and presented it to the Foundling Hospital the following year. It was displayed in the Court Room which became a fashionable place to visit in Georgian London. The painting depicts the infant Moses being given away by his birth mother to his adoptive mother, an Egyptian princess, in the Pharaoh’s palace. Hogarth chose this Biblical story as an allegory for the Foundling Hospital itself and used his subject to explore the themes of childhood, charity and adoption. Hogarth shows great compassion for Moses, who appears anxious and upset and clings to his mother’s dress. In the same way his mother is shown crying, reluctantly accepting money having wet-nursed Moses. The Pharaoh’s daughter is not aware that the woman before her is Moses’ mother.

Foundling Museum

London

Title

Moses Brought Before Pharaoh's Daughter

Date

1746

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 172.7 x W 208.3 cm

Accession number

FM34

Acquisition method

presented by the artist, 1747

Work type

Painting

Inscription description

Letters carved on the frame: EXODUS 11 Chap. 10th Verse. And the child grew; and She brought him unto Pharaoh's Daughter; and he became her Son. And she called his name Moses. Hogarth P.

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Normally on display at

Foundling Museum

40 Brunswick Square, London, Greater London WC1N 1AZ England

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