AARON MEETING MOSES IN THE DESERT, 1932
Oil on canvas. 76 x 51in. (193 x 130cm.)
Signed and dated 1932.
Provenance
Sotheby’s studio sale, London, 24th April 1985 as Moses and Aaron, lot 480. Illustrated in b/w in the catalogue (in reverse).
Exhibited
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1935, No. 17 as Aaron Meeting Moses.
Cheltenham, Municipal Art Gallery, 1936, No. 26.
Aaron was Moses’ older brother and his spokesman. God appeared to Moses and chose him to lead the people out of Egyptian slavery and to the Promised Land.
Colquhoun depicts Aaron wearing the robes of the High Priest, painting the picturesque costume with great accuracy. He wears a tunic of fine linen covered by a robe of woven material. The hem and cuffs of the robe are finished with a row of tassels, resembling pomegranates, alternating with bells of gold. His richly embroidered ephod, or waistcoat, has an onyx shoulder buckle and is covered by a breast plate bearing twelve differently coloured gem stones set in gold. The breastplate is held in place by gold chains inserted through gold rings. On his head Aaron has a linen mitre, fronted by a plate of pure gold. The individual garments that make up the robes contain complex symbolic meanings within their fabric, form and colour.
In contrast to the sophisticated, clean shaven, rather androgynous Aaron, Moses is much less richly attired, being bare-footed and clothed only in a sheep skin. The rams’ horns growing from his head add to his primitive appearance. They originate in a mistranslation of the Biblical text from the Hebrew, which confuses the word for rays of light with the word for horns. The mistake has become the basis of a mystical tradition that synthesises Christianity with the worship of the horned Egyptian god Amun.
Both Moses and Aaron carry a rod, symbolising their leadership authority. The shape of Moses’ rod, in the form of a serpent, probably refers to the time when he met Pharaoh. He cast his rod upon the ground, whereupon it turned into a snake, resuming its normal form when he picked it up.
The shape of Aaron’s rod derives from the story in which his rod was placed in the tabernacle overnight. In the morning it had sprouted, producing blossoms and bearing almonds.
At just over six feet tall, this canvas has the same dimensions as Death of the Virgin (1931) painted in the previous year. They are the largest of Colquhoun’s works painted in her early, Slade influenced, naturalistic style.
A sketch for this work is in the Tate Archive.