The Nativity by Petrus Christus is an oil painting on panel dating to around 1450, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Painted during the Northern Renaissance, this work falls within the mature period of Christus's career in Bruges, where he was active as a leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck. The subject is the Nativity of Christ, a central theme in Christian art of the fifteenth century. The composition centers on the Virgin Mary and Joseph, who kneel in adoration before the infant Christ, placed on the ground at the foreground of a dilapidated stable.

Three angels kneel in worship beside the Holy Family, their brightly colored robes and delicately painted wings contrasting with the deep blue of Mary's mantle and the vivid green and red of Joseph's garments. The open structure of the stable reveals a detailed landscape with a distant town and rolling hills under a clear sky, rendered with precise, luminous color typical of Netherlandish painting. The architectural frame of the painting is adorned with grisaille sculptures and reliefs depicting Old Testament scenes and figures, integrating the Nativity into a broader biblical narrative. The painting's provenance places it in the National Gallery of Art, where it is held today.

No specific details of its original commission or early history are documented, but its style and iconography are consistent with devotional panels produced in Bruges for private worship during the mid-fifteenth century. The work is recognized as an important example of Petrus Christus's contribution to Northern Renaissance art and reflects the influence of Jan van Eyck and the tradition of meticulous oil painting in the Burgundian Netherlands.