Private Collection, France

Paris, Salon, 1897, no. 730

Gérôme, oeuvres, Paris, Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale (28 volumes of mounted photographs of Gérôme's paintings and sculptures, the gift of his widow), vol. 8, no. 18
Philippe Gille, Figaro-Salon, Paris, 1897, p. 7
Gaston Schefer, Le Salon de 1897, Paris, 1897, p. 15
Gerald M. Ackerman, The Life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme with a Catalogue raisonné, London, 1986, p. 346, no. 439, illustrated (as lost)
Gerald M. Ackerman, Jean-Léon Gérôme. Monographie révisée. Catalogue raisonné mis à jour, Paris, 2000, p. 280, no. 439, illustrated (as lost)

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has recently been cleaned, varnished and retouched. The canvas is lined. There is evidence of an old, 4 inch horizontal break in the canvas, about 4 inches from the bottom edge and 8 inches from the left edge, which has been repaired and retouched. In the mountain range, there are retouches at the peak and to the left of the peak, where the paint layer is quite thin, and beneath the peak of the near mountain. There are a few other isolated dots of retouch in the sky and in the far distance, and behind the donkey and in the dark colors of the figure of Joseph. The retouches are not particularly fine and could be more accurately applied.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Jean-Léon Gérôme found enormous success ever since his first 1847 debut at the Salon with Le Combat de Coqs (Musée d’ Orsay, Paris, see lot 4), which brought him and his fellow Néo-Grecs, as they were called, much attention.  Several important commissions and purchases followed, including church decoration and the huge historical picture Siècle d'Auguste (1855, Musée d’ Orsay, Paris) which earned the artist the twenty thousand francs paid for a trip to Constantinople with his actor-friend Edmond Got, which prompted further travels to the Middle East and the subsequent exhibition of his first Egyptian themes in the 1857 Salon. He returned to Egypt and to this theme throughout his long career.                               

Two versions of La Fuite en Égypte (nuit) were made in 1897. One depicts the Holy Family traveling under the sun, with the Angel flying over the Virgin Mary (Private Collection; an esquisse for this painting is preserved at the Musée Georges-Garret, Vesoul, fig. 1), and the present nocturne which was chosen by Gérôme to be presented at the Salon of 1897.  Upon its exhibition, the painting was described by the art critic Gaston Schéferin as "a poetic nocturne landscape; The fugitives pass through the bluish mist of the evenings of Egypt. The charm is gentle in this picture, which evokes the remembrance of those early Oriental paintings which gave the artist such universal success. The painter’s qualities are more visible in this painting than in L'entrée du Christ à Jerusalem (1897, Musée Georges-Garret, Vesoul), where the historical reproduction of the scene seems to have eclipsed the spirit of the artist. Here his ambition has been fulfilled; as we prefer a grain of poetry over all the science of the world, of that banal poetry, if you will, but irresistible, which emanates at night from the venerable land from which all religions have sprung” (as translated from the French, Gaston Schéfer, The Salon of 1897, Paris, 1897, p. 15). La Fuite en Égypte (nuit) depicts Mary, Joseph and the Infant as simple Bedouins, bathed in the silver light of the full moon.  Gérôme was influenced by the Symbolist movement, and counted Gustave Moreau (see lot 19) among his friends, who taught at the École des Beaux-Arts from♎ 1896.