He kneels and bows over the stone, face hidden in his arm.
Bible in art · Ezra
Ezra Prays
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
This plate was engraved by H. Pisan, one of the leading wood engravers of Paris, who signed it at the bottom right. Doré’s design for the 1866 Bible leaves most of the page to sky and plain stone.
Ezra kneels on a stone terrace, his face buried in his arm, the hem of his cloak spread over the floor. Behind him a crowd of people gathers in the half-light; beyond them rise plain, blocky walls under an evening sky streaked with cloud.
From the text
- “At the evening offering” (Ezra 9:5)
- “with my tunic and cloak torn” (Ezra 9:5)
- “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You” (Ezra 9:6)
The artist’s own
- Ezra hides his face in his arm — the text says he spread out his hands
- Massive, bare walls of square blocks for Jerusalem
- A silent crowd watching from behind
Details
Ezra
His hand
One hand rests on the edge of the stone.
The people
A crowd gathers behind him in the dusk.
The walls
Plain, massive walls rise against the evening sky.
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. 86 · 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.