Sir Edward Poynter

Moses Keeping Jethro’s Sheep

1863

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment
Artist
Sir Edward Poynter 1836–1919
Part of
Illustrations for ‘Dalziel’s Bible Gallery’
Medium
Wood engraving on paper
Dimensions
Image: 181 × 159 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Presented by Gilbert Dalziel 1924
Reference
A00826

Display caption

Poynter chose to illustrate the lives of Joseph and Moses for the Bible Gallery. This episode from Exodus shows Moses feeding the sheep of the priest Jethro on Mount Horeb. Poynter shows the moment when God appears to Moses from a thorn-bush, ordering him to go before Pharaoh and demand the release of the Israelites.

Poynter was a prolific illustrator and worked many of his designs for wood-engravings into large oil paintings. He wrote to Dalziel in 1896 ‘There is no part of my life of the practice of my part to which I look back with greater pleasure’.

Gallery label, July 2008

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