In this illustration for the lavishly produced Life of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, James Tissot places the episode of Jesus’ birth in one of the caves in the mountains in and around Bethlehem, a departure from visual tradition, which often locates the Nativity in a stable.

Although Tissot spurned the art-historical convention of the halo in his depictions of the Holy Family and the apostles, he endows the infant Christ with a glow that illuminates the face of his adoring mother, who clasps her hands in prayerful reverence.