The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Rest on the Flight into Egypt

early 1640s

Claude Lorrain

(French, 1604–1682)
France, 17th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 239 x 185 x 12 cm (94 1/8 x 72 13/16 x 4 3/4 in.); Unframed: 208 x 152.5 cm (81 7/8 x 60 1/16 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1962.151
Location: 212 Baroque Painting and Sculpture

Did You Know?

Lorrain placed this Middle Eastern biblical event in the Roman countryside.

Description

One of the most influential landscape painters of the early modern era, Lorrain was a master of the “ideal landscape,” which combined lush foliage and a tranquil atmosphere with allusions to an idyllic, imaginary past. The intention was to create views more beautiful and harmonious than nature itself. In the foreground of this soaring landscape, the Holy Family rests on a shady bank as kneeling angels offer fruit to the Christ child. Landscape paintings like this were much in demand among wealthy collectors throughout Europe, for whom these expansive idealized scenes represented a calm retreat from their hectic city lives.
  • Count Francesco Crescenzi or Giovanni Battista Crescenzi (1577-1660?), Spanish Marquess de la Torre;
    Sir William Lowther (1727-1753), third and last Baronet of Marske (Holker Hall, Lancashire);
    by inheritance to Lord George Augustus Cavendish (died 1794), Holker Hall, Lancashire;
    by inheritance to William Cavendish (1808-1891), seventh Duke of Devonshire and second Earl of Burlington;
    Lord Richard Frederick Cavendish (1871-1946)
    sale, Christie's, London, December 12, 1930, no. 37, illus.;
    Richard Edward Osborne Cavendish, Esq., Holker Hall, Lancashire;
    sold, Christie's, London, April 1, 1960, no. 87, illus., to Rudolf Heinemann, New York;
    sold the the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962.
  • Gellée, Claude, and Henry S. Francis. “Landscape with Rest on the Flight into Egypt.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 49, no. 10 (December 1962): 231–235. Reproduced: Cover, p. 233, fig. 3; Mentioned: p. 231-235 www.jstor.org
    Saisselin, R. G. “Art Is an Imitation of Nature.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 52, no. 2 (February 1965): 34–44. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 34-35, fig. 1 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 118 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 118 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 172 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 74-76; Reproduced: p. 75
    Talbot, William S. “Visions of Landscape: East and West.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 3 (March 1983): 112–135. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 112-113, fig. 1 www.jstor.org
    Ditner, David C. “Claude and the Ideal Landscape Tradition in Great Britain.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 4 (April 1983): 147–163. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 151, fig. 5 www.jstor.org
    Goldfarb, Hilliard T. “A Pastoral Scene with Classical Figures by Claude Lorrain.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 4 (April 1983): 164–171. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 166, fig. 3 www.jstor.org
    McCree, J. Woodrow. Washington Irving's Critique of American Culture: Sketching a Vision of World Citizenship. 2021, 74. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 74-75, fig. 3.1.
  • Tokyo: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo "Claude Lorrain and the Ideal Landscape" 9/5 - 12/6/98.p. 81, no. 41.
    Claude Lorrain and the Ideal Landscape. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (organizer) (September 15-December 6, 1998).
    National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Oct. 17, 1982- Jan. 2, 1983: "Claude Lorrain: A Tercentenary Exhibition," cat. no. 33, p. 153, repr. pl. 152, p. 20.
    CMA, Feb. 21- Mar. 12, 1982: "Visions of Landscape: East and West," no catalogue.
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    Manchester, England, 1857. "Art Treasures of Great Britain," cat. no. 654.
    Art in Italy, 1600-1700. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (April 6-May 9, 1965).
    Detroit Institute of Arts, Apr. 6- May 9, 1965: "Art in Italy, 1600-1700," cat. no. 23, repr. (catalogue by Donald Posner).
    Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962).
    CMA, Oct.-Nov. 1962: "Year in Review."
  • {{cite web|title=Rest on the Flight into Egypt|url=false|author=Claude Lorrain|year=early 1640s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.151