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The Return of the Holy Family from Egypt
About the Artwork
The iconography of this drawing by the late 17th-century artist Claude Simpol is that of the Holy Family, but the exact subject is harder to identify with certainty. Due to the child’s ambiguous age, the scene is either the return of the Holy Family from the Flight into Egypt, or the return from the temple after Christ appeared among the doctors. Though loving and tender, the serious expressions and air of melancholy foreshadow Christ’s sacrifice, which is implied by the child’s arms held outstretched by his parents as if on a cross. The subtlety of emotion emphasizes the familial connection of the Holy Family and thus Christ’s humanity.
Inscriptions
Numbered "no. 2" on verso
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Claude Simpol (French, c. 1666–before 1711)
- Date
- c. 1695–1700
- Medium
- pen and black ink, gray opaque watercolor and white heightening on prepared yellow paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 24 x 17.3 cm (9 7/16 x 6 13/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund
- Accession no.
- 2025.6
Provenance
February 10, 2024: Sold as Anonymous, 10 February 2024 Hôtel des Ventes de la Seine, Rouen, France 2024–25: (Marty de Cambiaire Fine Arts SAS, Paris, France, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) March 3, 2025–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
More by Claude Simpol in museum collections
July: Amusements on the Water, (Juillet : les Divertissements sur l’eau)
Claude Simpolca. 1700 · Drawing
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011365
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