Rest on the Flight to Egypt (c. 1879): Art, History and Details

Rest on the Flight to Egypt (c. 1879) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Luc-Olivier Merson (French, 1846–1920).

The work and its context

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

This charcoal sketch relates to an oil painting that was tremendously popular at the 1879 Paris Salon. In both works, Luc-Olivier Merson depicted the Holy Family finding refuge in a massive sphinx sculpture during the rest on the flight into Egypt. The drawing may have been an independent work or, more likely, a study for the painting or a related print.

Object facts

• Title: Rest on the Flight to Egypt
• Date: c. 1879
• Creator attribution: Luc-Olivier Merson (French, 1846–1920)
• Culture: France, 19th- 20th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: charcoal
• Dimensions: Sheet: 36.9 x 51.5 cm (14 1/2 x 20 1/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2018.74

A detail from the museum

Despite the detail of his depictions on the subject, Luc-Olivier Merson never traveled to North Africa.

Collection credit

Bequest of William Kelly Simpson

Further reading listed by the museum

• Dahesh Museum. Picturing the Middle East: A Hundred Years of European Orientalism : a Symposium. New York: Dahesh Museum, 1996.

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.