SEBASTIEN BOURDON
1616-167 1
52 The Israélites Dancing around
the Golden Calf
Pen and brown ink and brown and white oil paint; H:
47.6cm(i8^3 / 4 in.); W: 65 cm (25^9 /ioin.)
88.GG.3 9MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) on mount, in-
scribed... Bourdon in black chalk.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Lugano; art market,
Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.IN 1657-58 BOURDON is KNOWN TO HAVE PRODUCED
six paintings of the story of Moses for the baron de Vau-
vert, Montpellier.^1 These paintings have not as yet been
traced to known works by the artist, but it is possible that
the Museum's drawing is a study for one of this series. A
further drawing showing the same subject, including
Moses breaking the tablets with the ten commandments
at the left, is in the Musée Atger, Montpellier (inv. M42
folio 53). It is drawn in the same technique as the Mu-
seum's study and is also unusually large. However, it is
less classical in composition and figurai types than the
Getty sheet, which seems to refer to Poussin s painting
of the subject in the National Gallery, London, in the
right-hand grouping of figures. There are two studies
of Moses Striking the Rock in the Musée Atger (inv.
MA in, MA 113) and another showing the Crossing of
the Red Sea in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (inv.
2456/1863), that may also have some connection to the
series for the baron.i. For the commission and later history of this series, see C.
Ponsonailhe, Sébastien Bourdon: Sa vie et son oeuvre (Paris, 1883),
pp. 170; 172, n. i; 284; C. Saunier, "Une collection de dessins
de maîtres provinciaux: Le Musée Xavier Atger à Montpellier, "
Gazette des Beaux-Arts 64, no. i (1922), p. 38.132 FRENCH SCHOOL • BOURDON