The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
1682
Medium
pen and brown ink with gray and blue wash and graphite, heightened with white gouache on blue laid paper
Dimensions
overall (approximate): 12.6 x 16.6 cm (4 15/16 x 6 9/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of R. Horace Gallatin
Accession Number
1949.1.24
Art Historical Context
Claude Lorrain’s “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” dated 1682, depicts the Holy Family pausing during their journey to safety, a subject long favored in Christian art for its themes of refuge and divine protection. Lorrain, a leading French Baroque landscape artist active in Rome, transforms this narrative into a tranquil pastoral scene, where figures are gently integrated into an expansive, luminous natural setting that reflects his lifelong fascination with light and atmosphere. The drawing’s medium—pen and brown ink with gray and blue wash, graphite, and white gouache on blue laid paper...
About the Artist
Claude Lorrain · 1604–1682
Claude Lorrain (c. 1600-1682), born Claude Gellée in the village of Chamagne in northeastern France's Duchy of Lorraine, stands as one of the most influential landscape painters in Western art history. Orphaned by age twelve, his journey to artistic mastery was unconventional—beginning with apprenticeships in pastry-making and inlay work before destiny led him to Rome around 1620, where he would s...