The National Gallery in London is one of the greatest art museums in the world. Founded by the British Parliament in 1824, it houses the national collection of paintings in the Western European tradition, from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Bellini, Cézanne, Degas, Leonardo da Vinci, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh, and Velázquez. The Gallery’s primary objectives are to care for and enrich the collection and to offer the best possible access to visitors.
With this in mind, the National Gallery has deployed a restoration and mediation project centered around an emblem of its collection, The Finding of Moses. This marks the first time the Etrillard Foundation has established a partnership in the United Kingdom.
The Finding of Moses, dating from the early 1630s, is one of the rare paintings by the great Italian Baroque painter Orazio Gentileschi during his residency at the court of King Charles I of England. This work originally hung in the Great Hall of the Queen’s House in Greenwich. Remarkable for its size (2.5 by 3 meters), its ambition, and its royal context, this painting is of exceptional importance to English and, more broadly, European heritage, and constitutes one of Gentileschi’s greatest works. Acquired in 2019 thanks to the support of donors, public appeals, and bequests, it is the first work by Gentileschi to enter the National Gallery’s collections.
Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639), “The Finding of Moses”, circa 1630, © The National Gallery, London
Since 2023, the painting has undergone restoration and retouching in the National Gallery’s conservation studio. It was first cleaned, consolidated, and varnished, and its paint losses were filled. In 2024, conservators finalized the retouching before having it reframed. The museum’s scientific department then fully examined the canvas using an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanner. This analysis revealed changes that occurred during the painting’s creation and provided a better understanding of Gentileschi’s materials and pictorial technique.
In May 2025, The Finding of Moses will be presented to the public for the first time since its restoration.
Conservators from the National Gallery at work on Orazio Gentileschi’s The Finding of Moses (early 1630s). © The National Gallery
The Etrillard Foundation is pleased to sponsor the Behind-the-scenes video of the project, in which the involved conservators, scientists, and curators present the initial results of the painting’s analysis and treatment. This 15-minute video shares their fascinating discoveries and promotes knowledge of this masterpiece among the general public. It is available on both the National Gallery’s website and its YouTube channel, enabling broad distribution worldwide.