Moses rescued from the Waters
1821 - 1830. Wash, Pencil, Charcoal on brown paper.Not on display
Preparatory cartoon drawn by André-Jacques-Victor Orsel for his most successful painting, Moses rescued from the Waters, which earned him a first prize medal at the 1831 Salon. It was commissioned by the city of Lyon and is now in its Musée des Beaux-Arts. In reality, the subject is the presentation of Moses to the pharaoh and the work is a clear example of the influence of the Nazarene movement which the artist assimilated in Rome.
The Museo del Prado houses no less than 82 prints and drawings by Orsel, donated in 1887 by the son of his close friend and fellow painter Alphonse-Henri Périn. They include two, the present work and the cartoon for The City of Lyon saved from Cholera by the Intercession of the Virgin (D7453), on the reverse of which and on a scale of 1:1 in relation to the paintings the artist took the trouble to depict the stretcher to which the planned canvases would have been attached, depicted very carefully and with all the details of the veins of the wood and the nails. It is most likely that he did this as part of the planning process for the execution of the works, but it is interesting in the present context as in a way these backs become trompe l’oeils. Furthermore, the edge of Orsel’s cartoon coincides with the edge of the drawn stretcher, allowing us to see it in the manner of one of those cut-outs or decoupages to which Victor Stoichita refers.
Blanco, Miguel Ángel (comisario), Reversos, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2023, p.310
