2-871-257 - Shirley Markham Collection/Heritage Images

The Return of the Dove to the Ark, 1850. Scene from the Old Testament story of Noah's Ark: a dove, bearing an olive branch, returns to the Ark. This is a sign that there is dry land after the world-engulfing flood sent by God. Painting, sometimes known as The Daughters of Noah, in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Frontispiece from "Pre-Raphaelite Painters" by Robin Ironside, with a descriptive catalogue by John Gere. [The Phaidon Press Ltd, London, 1948]