"He Turned Their Waters into Blood"
c. 1865/1880
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 76.8 x 102.9 cm (30 1/4 x 40 1/2 in.) framed: 95.2 x 121.9 x 6.3 cm (37 1/2 x 48 x 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Accession Number
1964.23.3
Art Historical Context
Erastus Salisbury Field created "He Turned Their Waters into Blood" in oil on canvas around 1865–1880, during the later phase of his career as a self-taught American folk artist. The work depicts the first of the biblical plagues of Egypt, in which the Nile River turns to blood at Moses’s command, drawing directly from the Book of Exodus. Field’s straightforward, narrative approach and bold use of color on this sizable canvas—measuring roughly 30 by 40 inches—made such religious scenes accessible and impactful for 19th-century viewers. Painted in the years following the Civil War, the subject...
About the Artist
Erastus Salisbury Field · 1805–1900
1805–1900