Miriam Watching the Finding of Moses in the Bulrushes

Simeon Solomon

February 22, 1859 · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over graphite · Drawings and Prints

As the youngest child in a Jewish family that produced three artists, Solomon began to draw at an early age and was encouraged by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Favoring Old Testament subjects, he sketched this composition one year after exhibiting his first oil at the Royal Academy. The story of the infant Moses is told from an unusual perspective, with the focus placed on his teenage sister Miriam. Hidden behind rushes, she watches an Egyptian princess who gestures as she notices the basket containing the baby. We cannot see him, and Miriam’s tense posture leaves the story’s outcome unresolved.

Artist

Simeon Solomon

Date

February 22, 1859

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

From the Robert Isaacson Collection, Gift of James David Draper, 2002