3-097-515 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Pharoah's daughter taking Moses out of the Nile, 1862. Biblical scene: a small group of women gazing at the infant Moses. Avrial's dedication to set design and his curiosity about other cultures and countries enabled him to explore exotic landscapes, as seen in this fantastical Egyptian setting, which plays a much more prominent role in the painting than the figures. Its narrative and expansive title gives no hint that this work is a landscape painting. In reality, the story it tells, about the Pharaoh's daughter bringing Moses out of the Nile, is merely a pretext for developing a landscape that occupies the entire canvas. The figures in the story are located in the lower part and centre of the composition, but reduced to a minimal size compared to the monumental, in this case pharaonic, buildings that fill the rest of the work. The rest of the painting is occupied by an Egyptian landscape. A vast palace, rendered with meticulous architectural detail, is surrounded by lush vegetation; it resembles an oasis, complete with palm trees. To the right, in the foreground, we see a small view of the Nile with some beached boats, and in the background, a pyramid.