Lot 221: Property of The Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sold to benefit the Charles Knox Smith Art Acquisition Fund

The women of Egypt pleading with Thermutis, daughter of the Pharaoh
signed and dated 'Louis Lang 1870' (lower left)
oil on canvas
42 x 61in (106.6 x 155cm)

PROVENANCE:
Joseph Harrison, Philadelphia;
Charles Knox Smith, Philadelphia, acquired directly from the above.

Louis Lang was born in Waldsee, Wurtemberg in 1814. His father, a historical painter, wished him to become a musician, but the young man wished to pursue an artistic career he studied in Stuttgart and Paris, finally moving to the United States in 1838 where he worked in a studio in Philadelphia. After a sojourn in Italy from 1841-1845, he returned to New York and was accepted into the National Academy in 1852. He was also a member of the Artist's Fund Society.

The present painting depicts the moments after the finding of Moses. Thermutis, daughter of Pharaoh, went down to the Nile to bathe with her handmaidens and found the baby Moses amongst the reeds in a little ark made of bullrushes. Against the wishes of her attendants, Thermutis took the child as her son and raised him as her own child.