The Finding of Moses

Goodall first travelled to Egypt in the late 1850s, at the time when he began exhibiting his religious epics with the Royal Academy. He was preoccupied with evoking biblical surroundings of archeological plausibility. This painting, which is the second version he painted on the theme, depicts the discovery of Moses by Pharoah's daughter and her handmaidens. While purporting prudery in relation to depictions of the nude body, many Victorians relished displays of naked flesh when legitimised within biblical and historical subjects.

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