A man on a white horse watches the soldiers drink.
Bible in art · Judges
Gideon Chooses His Soldiers
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
A team of engravers cut Doré’s drawings into wood for the Tours Bible of 1866. This impression comes from the Polish edition printed in Warsaw by M. Glücksberg in 1873–1874, with the Wujek translation, now in the National Library of Poland.
A wide pale lake stretches under low evening clouds. Along its banks hundreds of men bend to the water — some lie flat or kneel, others scoop it up in their hands — while Gideon watches from a white horse. Riders on camels and a far-off camp line the horizon.
From the text
- Gideon brought the people down to the water (Judges 7:5)
- Three hundred “lapped the water with their hands to their mouths” (Judges 7:6)
- “all the others knelt to drink” and were sent home (Judges 7:6–7)
The artist’s own
- Gideon on a white horse among mounted officers
- Camels, spearmen and a distant camp on the skyline
- The evening light and the soft reflections in the still water
Details
Gideon
Kneeling to drink
Rows of men bend low with their faces to the water.
Camels
Riders on camels with long spears stand on the far bank.
The lake
The figures are mirrored in the calm water.
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. 54 · 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.