Samuel Colman (1832-1920) was an English painter, based in Bristol for most of his career. In about 1815 Colman moved from Yeovil to Bristol, where he lived until around 1840. He worked as a portrait painter and drawing-master in the city, as well as painting minutely detailed Romantic, Biblical and genre scenes. He was loosely associated with the grouping of artists known as the Bristol School which flourished from the Regency era onwards.

Samuel Colman's religious faith was crucial to his work and this painting contains complex symbolism. Its theme comes from the Old Testament's Book of Isaiah, which foretold the coming of Christ and his gift of salvation. He appears three times: as the risen Christ treading down the serpent which represents Satan, as the infant Christ the saviour, and as the good shepherd, leading his flock away from danger. High in the background, an angel daintily dispatches a mountain top upon the doomed city of Babylon.