Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1640): Art, History and Details

Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1640) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Charles Poërson (French, 1609–1667).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Formerly ascribed to the French painter Simon Vouet (1590-1649), Rest on the Flight into Egypt has only recently been attributed to Poerson, a collaborator and follower of Vouet. Intended to be a small devotional picture, this painting on oak panel depicts a quiet scene of the Holy Family resting; the Virgin Mary sits while an angel brings the plump young Christ Child fruit, and St. Joseph leads their donkey away to graze. The delicate pinks and blues and the transparent treatment of light and shadow create a gentle domestic atmosphere, characteristic of Vouet's Italian-influenced work.

Object facts

• Title: Rest on the Flight into Egypt
• Date: c. 1640
• Creator attribution: Charles Poërson (French, 1609–1667)
• Culture: France
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 57.5 x 67.5 x 6.5 cm (22 5/8 x 26 9/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 35.5 x 45.9 cm (14 x 18 1/16 in.)
• Collection: P - French 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1973.32

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31–78. Published as: Attributed to Simon Vouet
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.