The Finding of Moses (Alma-Tadema painting)  The Finding of Moses is a 1904 painting by the Anglo-Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema. It was one of his last major works before his death in 1912, but quickly fell out of favour; according to rumour, it was sold in the 1950s for its frame. After appreciation of Victorian painting was renewed towards the end of the 20th century, it was described in an auction catalogue in 1995 as "the undisputed masterpiece of [Alma-Tadema's] last decade, as well as a late (perhaps the final?) flowering of the nineteenth-century's love-affair with Egypt". It was sold to a private collector at auction in 2010 for nearly US$36 million. The Finding of Moses had been a popular subject for paintings since the Renaissance, with a revival in the 19th century by Orientalist artists keen to add authentic archaeological decor to their depictions. The painting was commissioned by Sir John Aird, 1st Baronet for 5,000 guineas, plus expenses. Aird's civil engineering business, John Aird & Co., was responsible for building the first Aswan Dam. Aird invited Alma-Tadema to visit Egypt for the opening of the dam in December 1902, and commissioned him to paint a suitable subject to add to Aird's large collection of academic paintings by the likes of Frederic Leighton, Edward Poynter, and John William Waterhouse, including Alma-Tadema's 1888 work "The Roses of Heliogabalus". The commission allowed Alma-Tadema to revisit Egyptian themes from his works in the 1860s. The work is a Biblical scene based on chapter 2, verse 6 of the Book of Exodus, in which Pharaoh's daughter comes to wash in the River Nile, and finds the infant Moses abandoned in a basket in the reeds. The painting depicts the scene after the infant has been discovered, showing a procession travelling back to the daughter's abode in Memphis, the capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The Finding of Moses had been a popular scene for painters, especially since the Late Renaissance. Shaven-headed male attendant in white loincloths carry Pharaoh's daughter in an elaborately decorated chair. She wears a pink diaphanous gown and elaborate jewellery, and holds a flail in her left hand, a symbol of royalty; in her right hand, she holds a lotus flower. The style and decoration of her chair is informed by illustrations of Egyptian tomb paintings.