Footnotes

Provenance
Probably, Robert Strange sale, Christie's, London, 5 March, 1773, lot 107 ('Le Brun - The Passage of the Red Sea, from Poussin')
Probably, Sir Thomas Rumbold of Woodhall Park, circa 1773
From whom probably purchased in 1800 by Samuel Smith
Probably the collection of Abel Smith of Berkeley Square, circa 1835
Probably thence by family descent until the sale of the Principal Contents of Woodhall Park, Sotheby's 11 March 1931, lot 20, 72 x 83 1/2 in. (as by Poussin)

Literature
Probably Anthony Blunt, The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin, a critical catalogue, London, 1966, p. 17 (as copy of No. 20 by Charles Lebrun)

Exhibited
Cantor Museum, Stanford University, California

The present composition is after the original work by Nicolas Poussin in the National Gallery, Melbourne (acc. no. 1843-4). Anthony Blunt's catalogue entry for the original by Poussin gives two copies by Charles Lebrun in a sale of 1773 which he says were bought by West whom he says was presumably Benjamin West. In fact, the Christie's records for the sale give the buyer as 'Parsons'. Since he is not a known collector but records show that he bought several other major paintings around the time it is thought that he may well have been a dealer or agent.

The frame has been identified as constructed by the West End frame maker Smith and Son in the 1830s and their records show that Abel Smith of Berkeley Square purchased two handsome frames for copies of Poussin in 1835. Two pictures from the Smiths' collection at Woodhall, catalogued as by Poussin, were sold on 11 March 1931 at Sotheby's in two separate lots. Woodhall was completed and being furnished in 1773 by Sir Thomas Rumbold, an Indian nabob who went out to be Governor of Madras, which is the same year as the sale of the two pictures of the same subject that were called Charles Lebrun. Following Sir Thomas Rumbold's death the property and its entire contents were bought by Samuel Smith in 1801, whose son, Abel Smith, inherited his estate in 1834.

The 1773 catalogue entry stated the following: 'It is to be remarked that the engravings which have been published of this picture and its companion, have, in all probability, been done from these admirable copies by Le Brun because in the print of this subject we do not find the pillar of fire behind the Moses, which is certainly in the picture painted by Poussin, in the collection of the Earl of Radnor. For what reason Le Brun omitted this is best known to himself.' The pillar, in fact of cloud, not fire, which had been painted out in the original, reappeared when the painting was cleaned in 1960, but was in fact so much damaged that it had to be covered up again. Edouard Gerspach in his summary of the series of tapestries known as L'Histoire de Moïse, notes that 'the tapestries were executed from blown-up copies of the paintings by Poussin, which comprised 8 subjects. Le Brun completed the set with two works: The Brazen Serpent and The Burning Bush.' (Edouard Gerspach, Répértoire détaillé des tapisseries des Gobelins exécutées de 1662 á 1892, Paris, 1893, pp.88-89).