God Said, Let There Be Light

Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw

Gustave Doré drew this as the opening plate of «La Sainte Bible», published by Alfred Mame in Tours in 1866 with about 230 full-page engravings. Henri Pisan, whose name stands at the bottom right, cut the drawing into a block of end-grain boxwood.

There is no earth yet, only clouds and dark water. High in the sky a bearded figure in a long robe raises one arm, and a fan of rays bursts out beside him. The bright lines of the rays are left as bare white wood.

From the text

“Let there be light,” and there was light (Genesis 1:3)

“darkness was over the surface of the deep” (Genesis 1:2)

God separated the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:4)

The artist’s own

God shown as an old man in a robe, as painters had long done — the text gives no figure

The light breaking out of a cloud bank like a sunrise

Details

The figure

A bearded figure in a robe stands on the clouds and raises his right arm.

The rays

A fan of light bursts out of the darkness to the left.

The deep

Below, only dark water and a bare shore.

Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 1, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1873 (acc. 75.267 A), tabl. 1 · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.

The verses

Gen 1:1–5In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.