Light and Colour

The full title of this painting is Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory) – The Morning after the Deluge – Moses Writing the Book of Genesis. It was first exhibited in 1843 together with Shade and Darkness.

The figure in the centre must be Moses, according to the title. Below him people are floating in the water. There is fresh light, yellow, derived from Goethe's theory of colour.

The painting was stolen in 1994 from a museum in Frankfurt where it was on loan from the Tate Gallery. The Gallery retrieved it by buying it on the black market in 2002.