Moses found by Pharaoh's daughter.

Pharaoh"s daughter discovers the infant Moses in the bulrushes in this 1813 painting, created during Eckersberg"s Parisian years under David. The biblical subject—combining landscape, figure painting, and narrative drama—was a standard test of academic ability. Eckersberg"s Parisian training emphasized the importance of history painting as the highest genre, and this work reflects that academic hierarchy. Eckersberg's religious works apply the same analytical clarity to devotional subjects that he brought to portraiture and marine painting.

The Davidian influence is strong in the careful figure construction and the clear, organized composition. The landscape setting shows Eckersberg beginning to develop his gift for natural observation within the framework of historical narrative. The palette reflects Parisian academic conventions—restrained, carefully balanced, with the figures" flesh tones providing the warmest passages against a landscape of more neutral tones.