The Flight into Egypt (La fuite en Égypte)

James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York

Tissot set the flight into Egypt in open sand under a heavy evening sky. The family travels alone: Joseph walks beside the white donkey with a staff, and Mary rides with the child held close in a patterned wrap.

At the left lies the bleached skeleton of a dead animal, a sight of desert roads. On the ridge behind, small riders on camels pass against the sky.

From the text

Joseph takes the Child and His mother by night and withdraws to Egypt (Matthew 2:14)

An angel tells Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13)

The artist’s own

A desert crossing with an animal’s skeleton in the sand

A far-off camel caravan on the skyline

Mary riding a donkey, as painters traditionally showed her

Details

Mother and child

Mary holds the child, wrapped in a patterned cloth, as she rides.

Joseph

A grey-bearded man with a staff and a bundle on his shoulder.

The skeleton

The white bones of a dead animal lie in the sand.

On the ridge

Small figures with camels cross the skyline.

James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.35) · Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper · Brooklyn Museum (Commons file page, «Permission»): "This image was uploaded by the Brooklyn Museum as a content partnership, and is considered to have no known copyright restrictions by the institutions of the Brooklyn Museum." — "No known copyright restrictions".

The verses

Matt 2:13–15When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.” So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”