Adriaen van der Werff, 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt', 1706

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Adriaen van der Werff

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The Virgin Mary supports her son’s head with one hand and his chubby leg with the other, laying him down on her deep blue cloak. Her husband, Joseph, lies asleep behind them. Christ’s raised leg lifted to one side shows his genitals, proving that he is a human child – the son of man and the son of God, as had been promised in the scriptures.

After Christ’s birth, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, warning him that King Herod was searching for the child in order to kill him. He took Mary and the infant to Egypt for safety, a story told in the New Testament. While the holy family’s rest on their journey is not actually described anywhere, it has frequently been depicted throughout the ages.

In-depth

The Virgin Mary supports her son’s head with one hand and his chubby leg with the other, laying him down on her deep blue cloak. The child’s raised leg lifted to one side shows his genitals, proving this is a human child – the son of man and the son of God, as had been promised in the scriptures. Christ sleeps, but holds tiny white flowers on his chest as a sign of his purity. His small body is so smooth and pale that he’s almost like a marble sculpture – just a little pink on his cheeks and his fair curls bring him to life.

Mary gazes down at him. She is dressed in the simple, low-necked garment of a peasant woman of the early eighteenth century. Van Der Werff has pushed her back into the shadows, and what little light there is emanates from the infant Christ – he is to become the ‘light of the world’ (John 8: 12). Even more in the background is the figure of Mary’s husband, Joseph, just discernible as he sleeps behind Mary’s arm against the almost uniformly shadowed background. Just a glimpse of a tree and a distant hill against a small patch of evening sky high up on the right soften the bleakness.

After Christ’s birth, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, warning him that King Herod was searching for the child in order to kill him. Joseph took Mary and the infant to Egypt for safety, a story told in the New Testament and in biblical apocrypha. While the holy family’s rest on their journey is not actually described anywhere, it has been depicted frequently throughout the ages.

Van der Werff was for some time court painter to the Elector Palatine, Johann Wilhelm. It appears that the Elector commissioned the painting shortly after he had made the artist a knight for his services in adding to the decoration of the Elector’s palace in Düsseldorf.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Artist: Adriaen van der Werff
Artist dates: 1659 - 1722
Date made: 1706
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 54.5 × 43 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1924
Inventory number: NG3909
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

Presented by the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm to Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, apparently in 1707. Cardinal Ottoboni died in February 1740; No. 3909 was probably bought at the sale of his collection in Rome by Dr Robert Bragge, by whom it was brought to England; in a Dr [Robert] Bragge sale in London in 1742 (1741 O.S.), lot 46, sold for £156. By 1748 it was in the collection of the Revd Dr Newton (presumably Dr Thomas Newton who became Bishop of Bristol in 1761 and died in 1782). It was later in the collection of Welbore Ellis Agar and is in the catalogue of the Agar sale announced for 2–3 May 1806 in London (2nd day, lot 50), but the whole collection was bought before that date by the 2nd Earl Grosvenor (later 1st Marquess of Westminster). In the collection at Grosvenor House, London. Duke of Westminster sale, London, 4 July 1924 (lot 60), bought by A. de Casseres (210 gns), from whom purchased (with the aid of the Florence Fund) in 1924.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1788

125 Pall Mall, A Catalogue of the Superlatively Fine Collection of Pictures Late the Property of the Right Reverend Dr Newton, London, 8 April 1788
1806

J. Christie, Catalogue raisonné de la collection de feu monsieur Welbore Ellis Agar, London, 2 May 1806 - 3 May 1806
1821

J. Young, Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Grosvenor House, Belonging to His Grace the Duke of Westminster, London 1821
1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1832

Lacoste, Catalogue des tableaux italiens, flamands, hollandais et français, des anciennes écoles, qui composent la magnifique galerie de M. le Chevalier Érard, Paris, 23 April 1832
1834

British Institution, Catalogue of the Works of Ancient Masters: The Property of His Most Gracious Majesty William the Fourth, the Most Noble the Marquess of Westminster, and the Right Honourable Sir Charles Bagot, G.C.B. (exh. cat. British Institution, 1834), London 1834
1844

A.M. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: Containing Accurate Catalogues, Arranged Alphabetically, for Immediate Reference, Each Preceded by an Historical & Critical Introduction […], London 1844
1854

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
1913

J. Young, Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Grosvenor House, Belonging to His Grace the Duke of Westminster, London 1913
1928

C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart 1928
1953

F. Simpson, 'Dutch Paintings in England Before 1760', The Burlington Magazine, XCV/599, 1953, pp. 39-42
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1976

C. Brown, Art in Seventeenth Century Holland (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 30 September - 12 December 1976), London 1976
1987

B. Bernard, Queen of Heaven: A Selection of Paintings of the Virgin Mary from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Centuries, London 1987
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1994

P. Durcan, Give Me Your Hand: Poems, London 1994
1994

A. Thomas, An Illustrated Dictionary of Narrative Painting, London 1994
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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Adriaen van der Werff, 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt', 1706

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Adriaen van der Werff