Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella (1636–1697) was a French engraver, most of whose prints were after works by the classical painter Nicolas Poussin or by her uncle Jacques Stella, from whom she received her artistic education. The National Gallery of Art has acquired two large-scale prints, Moses Striking the Rock (1687) and Baby Moses Placed in the Nile by his Parents (1672). These prints are considered among the most adept and sensitive graphic translations of Poussin’s paintings.

In 1657 with the death of her uncle, Bouzonnet-Stella not only became the head of the family printmaking workshop, but she also was granted a special privilege that gave her the exclusive right to publish the designs she engraved, whether they were prints after the works by her late uncle or after works in his collection. Over the course of the next few decades, she refined her engraving talents by tackling multiple projects as well as studying work by other French 17th-century artists. Her late uncle was a friend of Poussin and his collection of paintings and drawings provided Bouzonnet-Stella the chance to study Poussin’s work closely.

The National Gallery’s two new prints depict seminal moments in the life of Moses. In Moses Striking the Rock, she translates Poussin’s 1649 painting of the same name that presents a scene from the Old Testament in which the prophet Moses strikes the ground to draw forth water for the Israelites. Baby Moses Placed in the Nile by his Parents is a mirror image of Poussin’s 1654 painting of The Exposition of Moses. It depicts the biblical scene of how one Israelite woman saved her newborn son after the Pharaoh of Egypt ordered all the first-born male babies to be killed.