And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

Exodus 14: 26-28

Our painting depicts one of the most dramatic events in the book of Exodus: the escape of the Israelites from Egypt. The artist has made an interesting choice to paint not the parting of the Red Sea, but rather the next stage of the story: when God, through Moses, closes the Sea upon the Army of Egypt.

The canvas shows calm and chaos at once.

All is calm upon the shore of the Red Sea, where the Israelites have gathered after crossing the sea bed: groups of men are deep in conversation; women cradle their babes in their arms; and someone holds the Israelites’ standard. Further in the background is what appears to be a horse-headed ship full of metal plates and pots: are these the goods the Isrealites packed into ships when the expected to cross the Red Sea by water? And if so how did they get the ship across the dry sea bed? The artist leaves these questions for us to ponder.

The artist has chosen to clothe the Israelites in 17^th Century period dress; this will have brought the painting an immediacy to contemporary viewers that a more historically accurate choice would have lacked.

In other details the artist has followed the account in Exodus closely: amongst the Israelites, for example, we see a basket overflowing with bread: the “unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt” (Exodus 12:39).

In contrast the calmness of the Israelite camp on the right, the scene on the left is pure chaos, as the Red Sea has engulfed the Egyptians. We see a mass of drowning bodies far into the distance. In the foreground a man (Pharaoh himself?) sits atop a sinking chariot striking his whip in vain.

In between these scenes stands Moses, at the vanguard of his people. He stares at the drowning Egyptians, with his hand at waist height. We can imagine that he has just lowered his hand, having raised in at God’s command to close the Sea upon Pharaoh’s army.

With high drama this painting shows the reversal of fortunes of the Egyptians and Israelites caused by divine intervention: those who were slaves are now free, as their former captors perish.

Provenance: Private Collection, Oxford, England