Dutch painter Laurens Alma Tadema lived in London where he developed a keen interest in Egypt and its ancient history.

In this masterpiece, he depicts a scene from the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, in which God sends the Egyptians a series of plagues, the last of which is the death of every firstborn son in the land of the Pharaohs.

From Exodus 12:29.32:

???nd at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the Land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the first-born of the captive in the dungeon and all the first- born of the cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians