The Flight into Egypt

Rembrandt painted this Flight into Egypt in 1647, during his most productive decade. He was forty-one, living in Amsterdam, and at the height of his powers. The painting is one of several versions he made of this subject, exploring the story of the Holy Family's escape from Herod's massacre. The Holy Family moves through a dark landscape at night. Mary rides a donkey, holding the Christ Child in her arms. Joseph walks beside them, carrying a staff. They follow a path that winds through trees and rocks. In the background, a fire burns in a small village, its smoke rising into the night sky. The moon is hidden, but the sky is not entirely dark. A faint light falls on the path, on the trees, and on the figures, as if from an unseen source. Rembrandt painted several nocturnal landscapes in the 1640s, all of them exploring the technical challenge of painting darkness. The Flight into Egypt is one of the most successful. The darkness is not a flat black but a complex of browns, blues, and greens, built in thin layers. The light on the figures is warm and focused, as if from a lantern just outside the frame. The trees are silhouettes against the sky, their branches rendered in quick, dark strokes. The painting is sometimes called a 'night piece,' a genre that Rembrandt invented. Before him, nocturnal scenes were rare in European painting, and the technical challenges of painting darkness had not been solved. Rembrandt's solution was to use a dark ground and to build the forms in layers of warm and cool color, letting the dark ground show through. The result is a darkness that has depth and atmosphere, not a flat black. Oil on canvas, 63 by 82 centimeters, roughly 25 by 32 inches. Rembrandt used a brown ground, building the landscape in layers of dark green, brown, and blue. The figures are lit from an unseen source, their faces and hands warm against the dark background. The fire in the village is a point of orange light, its smoke built in thin glazes of grey. This print works in a hallway or study, where the dark palette and the nocturnal subject can be appreciated in low light. The warm tones of the figures and the fire suit wood paneling and dim lighting. The 16x20 framed version gives the figures and the landscape enough detail to read. The painting is in the Cleveland Museum of Art.