"Flight into Egypt"


"Flight into Egypt". Jean Charlot. [1976] Lightly edited by John Charlot. [U47]

Jean Charlot's remarks on his 1976 painting Flight into Egypt.


Flight into Egypt
Jean Charlot

size 20 in. × 10 in.
Cat. No. 1347
Painted March 1976

The episode of the Flight into Egypt has been one of my favorite themes. Often reproduced, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, owned by the Joyce Roberts family, is one of my best known paintings. The most monumental version of the Flight is that painted in fresco for O'Shaughnessy Hall, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana.[1] The same theme is treated in copper repoussé as one of the panels of the doors of the Punahou Chapel.[2]

Perhaps my special interest in the theme has to do with the relationship between pagans and Christians, the Holy Family forced to flee from their own race and country being hospitably received by pagans in a country most famed for its many "idols".

My aloha to Michael and Beatrice Munive on the occasion of acquiring this painting and their 15th wedding anniversary.

# Notes

  1. Fresco Class in Action. Jean Charlot. 1955. Fresco. 25 ft wide × 11 ft high. Student lounge, O'Shaughnessy Hall (renamed: Snite Museum of Art), University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana.

    ^reference
  2. "The Flight into Egypt". Episodes from the Life of Christ. Jean Charlot. 1967–1971. Copper repoussé. 19 in wide × 18 in high. Thurston Chapel, Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.

    ^reference

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Jean Charlot & The Jean Charlot Foundation