Nicolas BERTIN Paris, 1667 - 1736 Moses defends the daughters of Jethro Oil on canvas Moses defending the daughters of Jethro, oil on canvas, by N. Bertin 96 x 130 cm (37.80 x 51.18 in.) Provenance: Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 6 July 2017, n°188 ; Anonymous sale, Rome, Telearte, 3 November 2022, no. 49; Acquired at this sale by the current owner; Private collection, Paris Comment: A pupil of Jean Jouvenet and Bon Boullogne, Nicolas Bertin won the Grand Prix in 1685, which enabled him to go to Rome. On his return in 1689, he joined the construction sites at Versailles, the Menagerie, Meudon and Trianon. Until 1701, when he received his first royal commission for the Menagerie, his work consisted mainly of small mythological paintings in the Boullogne style. In 1703, he was admitted to the Académie royale with 'Hercules liberating Prometheus' (Paris, Musée du Louvre) and was appointed professor in 1715. He also received commissions from Elector Max Emmanuel of Bavaria for the castles of Nymphenburg and Schleissheim. The subject of our painting is taken from the Book of Exodus (II, 16-22): the daughters of Jethro, drawing water from the well for their father's flock, are chased away by a group of Midianite shepherds. Young Moses came to their rescue and, in return, Jethro gave him his eldest daughter, Sephora, as a wife. Bertin painted several different compositions of this subject, a smaller one is in the Musée de l'Hôtel Sandelin in Saint-Omer, and another, identical in size to our panel, is in the Musée Lambinet in Versailles. Finally, a last one1 has recently passed through our rooms (fig. 1). 1 Anonymous sale, Paris, Artcurial, 9 June 2021, lot 173