For most of the 20th century, the art establishment had a simple rule: Impressionism was good; Victorian art was bad.
They said Lawrence Alma-Tadema was kitsch. They said his paintings were "chocolate box" decorations. In the 1960s, you could buy his works for a few hundred pounds.
Then came November 4, 2010.
At Sotheby’s in New York, lot number 26 came up for auction. It was a massive canvas, measuring over seven feet wide. It depicted a scene from the Old Testament: The Finding of Moses.
The pre-sale estimate was high ($3–5 million). But when the bidding started, the room erupted. Two bidders—fighting via anonymous telephone lines—fought a war of attrition that drove the price up, and up, and up.
Who were they? The winner was the Qatari Royal Family, acquiring the masterpiece for their ambitious Orientalist Museum. The identity of the stubborn underbidder remains a mystery, but their battle drove the final price to seven times the high estimate.
When the hammer finally fell, the price was $35,922,500.
It was the most expensive Victorian painting ever sold. The Finding of Moses had not just broken a record; it had broken the curse on Victorian art.
The Commission: The Dam and the Paradox
The creation of The Finding of Moses began with a paradox.
In 1902, the British engineer Sir John Aird invited Alma-Tadema to Egypt. Aird was the man responsible for building the Aswan Low Dam, a marvel of modern engineering that would control the Nile's floods. However, the dam would also submerge important archaeological sites, including the island temple of Philae.
There is a deep irony here: The engineer who was drowning ancient Egypt commissioned the artist who was famous for resurrecting it.
Alma-Tadema traveled up the Nile with Aird. He didn't sketch the dam. He sketched the limestone cliffs, the water, and the light. He absorbed the atmosphere of the ancient world that was slowly disappearing beneath the modern water.
Sir John Aird gave him a simple instruction: paint me the spirit of the Nile. He did not dictate the subject; he trusted the artist's vision.
When he returned to London, Alma-Tadema chose to paint the most famous river-story in history: The Finding of Moses. It was a subtle tribute to his patron. Aird was the engineer who tamed the river; Moses was the child saved by it.
The Obsession with Detail
Alma-Tadema treated the biblical subject not as a fable, but as a historical event. He wanted the viewer to feel they were looking at a documentary photograph from 1300 BC.
Back in his London studio, the obsession set in.
- The Flowers: In the foreground, purple Delphiniums (Larkspurs) burst from the canvas. It was winter in London, and they weren't in bloom. Alma-Tadema refused to paint from memory. He famously had fresh crates of Larkspurs shipped from Nice, France, every week for months, just to capture the exact shade of purple for The Finding of Moses.
- The Hieroglyphs: The linen cloth draped over the slaves is woven with specific hieroglyphic inscriptions. They aren't random squiggles; they are readable text.
- The Artifacts: The priests carry ritual objects—fox-tail fans, leopard skins, and systra (rattles)—that were based directly on artifacts in the British Museum.
The Composition: A Hierarchy of Gaze
The composition of The Finding of Moses is masterful and unusual.
Most artists depicting this scene place the focus on the basket. Alma-Tadema places the focus on the Pharaoh’s Daughter. She sits high on a carrying chair, elevated above the viewer, looking down with an expression of imperial detachment.
She is the center of the world. The baby Moses is almost incidental, tucked away in the reeds at the bottom of the frame.
This creates a powerful psychological effect. We, the viewers, are looking up at the Princess, while she looks down at the future prophet. It captures the exact moment where the power dynamics of history are about to shift. The immense power of Egypt (the Princess) is about to adopt the force that will eventually destroy it (Moses).
The Frame as Architecture
Alma-Tadema believed that a painting didn't end at the canvas edge. He designed the frame for The Finding of Moses himself.
It is a heavy, gilded construction, decorated with Egyptian motifs and architectural pillars. It turns the painting into a window. When you look at The Finding of Moses, you feel as though you are looking through the stone pillars of a temple out onto the Nile.
The Vindication of a Master
After its completion in 1904, The Finding of Moses was celebrated, but as Modernism took over, it fell into obscurity. For decades, it hung in private collections while the art world looked the other way. It changed hands quietly, undervalued and unappreciated.
But the 2010 sale proved something important. It proved that quality is durable. You can deride a style for fifty years, you can call it "unfashionable," but you cannot destroy the sheer, undeniable skill of a master.
Today, the painting resides in the Qatar Museums collection. However, it is not hidden away. In 2017, it was generously loaned back to London for the At Home in Antiquity exhibition, allowing a new generation to stand before the $35 million masterpiece and wonder how they ever doubted him.
The Finding of Moses is more than just a painting of a baby in a basket. It is a testament to Alma-Tadema's genius, a receipt for $35 million, and the final proof that he was, and remains, one of the giants of art history.
