A panoramic drawing of Moses, centre, striking a rock from which a spring issues; the Israelites gathered around, in gestures of amazement or gathering the water in bowls (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:1-13).

Poussin appears to have painted this subject on three occasions. Two canvases survive, one of c.1633-35, in the collection of the Duke of Sutherland, another of 1649, in the Hermitage; and a third is lost, but was described by Bellori and is known from engravings. This drawing does not correspond with any of these versions, for although several of the motifs recur in one or other of the paintings, the long format and the grouping of the Israelites into two dense masses either side of Moses and Aaron are unique. Bellori (Le Vite de Pittori, 1672, p.421) stated that Poussin was constantly designing new ideas with many figures for this subject, because of the opportunity it offered for the depiction of human emotions, and it is thus plausible that the drawing was not preparatory for any painting.

The rather severe composition is characteristic of Poussin’s works of the mid-1640s onwards – his growing affinity for symmetry can be observed in the second series of Sacraments (see RCIN 911889), and the figure types and the handling of pen and wash here are also found in several studies for the Sacraments, particularly Baptism (Rosenberg & Prat 1994, nos. 253-259), and a date contemporary with those, around 1646, seems likely.

On the verso is a large, vigorous sketch of the angel dictating the Gospel to St Matthew, a popular subject in the seventeenth century, though it is not connected with any known painting by Poussin. Although the scale of the figures is unusual, they are close in their bold outlines and abstraction to several other studies of the 1640s (eg RCIN 911988).