In his entry on The Flight into Egypt for the Samuel Palmer and 'The Ancients' exhibition in 1984, Raymond Lister notes that the technique for the painting is much more reminiscent of the known works of John Linnell's daughter, Hannah, who married Samuel Palmer. Lister describes the 'almost embroidered treatment of the trees' as a hallmark of Hannah's work which was also shown alongside the painting in the same exhibition. A note in Sir Lawrence Gowing's files mentions 'R. Lister suggests it is by Hannah Palmer. I agree.'
The other mystery surrounding the painting is the title - although it is tentatively called The Flight into Egypt - it seems, apart from the little group with the donkey on the hill at the left, to have little relationship to the subject. The distant towered city, the soldiers in the foreground and the girl climbing the tree are all lacking in most known treatments of the flight.