An old man with a long white beard points the way with his right hand.
Bible in art · Genesis
Abraham Sends Away Hagar
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
A quiet plate among the dramatic ones: four figures in plain morning light, drawn with long falling folds. The design is Doré’s for the Tours Bible of 1866; the wood engraver signed at the bottom right.
Abraham, white-bearded and leaning on a tall staff, points the way. Hagar walks off with a tall jar on her shoulder, a tear on her cheek, and the boy Ishmael holds on to her dress. Behind them, at the tent, Sarah sits with a small child in her arms. Palms mark the edge of the desert.
From the text
- Abraham got up “early in the morning” (Genesis 21:14)
- He “took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders” (Genesis 21:14)
- He “sent her away with the boy” (Genesis 21:14)
The artist’s own
- Sarah with the little Isaac at the tent, watching — not in this verse
- A pottery jar instead of a skin of water
- Abraham’s pointing hand, which gives the scene its gesture
Details
Abraham
Hagar and the jar
She carries a tall jar on her shoulder; a tear runs down her cheek.
Ishmael
The boy holds on to his mother’s dress.
Sarah
At the tent a woman sits with a small child in her arms.
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. 14 · 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.