Luc Olivier Merson

The biblical story of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt is central to the work of Merson. His depiction of the Virgin and child sleeping between the paws of a monumental sculpted sphinx set in the desert debuted at the Salon of 1879 and captured the public's imagination.
In the years leading up to his masterwork, Merson explored the nocturnal theme numerous times, reworking the composition in each version. He chose an archeologically detailed Egyptian setting for the poignant moment when Mary, Joseph, and the Christ child rest for the night while departing Egypt at the urging of an angel and out of fear of King Herrod's order to kill all Hebrew male children, as told in the Gospel of Matthew (2:13-23).
In the present drawing, the Virgin is seated on a sphinx's head; on the wall behind her is a relief featuring an Egyptian woman playing the harp; to the left of the Virgin, cloaked in shadow, rests a fatigued Joseph, his staff pointing towards the sphinx's paws at the lower edge of the sheet. The fire in the foreground, the halos surrounding the Virgin and Child, and the twinkling stars at the upper left illuminate the scene. Merson's decision to situate the Flight in the ruins of an Egyptian temple is iconographically unusual and reveals his passion for historical specificity and his abiding interest in North Africa.