Rest on the Flight to Egypt
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1879
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
A tired Mary cradles baby Jesus while Joseph sleeps beside them. They rest inside the broken paw of a giant stone sphinx, its ancient face looming over them. Merson painted this scene for the 1879 Paris Salon, where it became a hit. The sphinx wasn’t in the Bible story—he added it to make the moment feel grand and mysterious. The charcoal sketch might be a practice run for the final painting. For more quiet, dreamy scenes like this, look up the subject *france, 19th- 20th century*.
![The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (recto); Sketch of a Sphinx [?] (verso)](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/25f9a663b49091e6/thumb.webp)
![Sketch of a Sphinx [?] (verso)](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/01aae5545d384a57/thumb.webp)
