She rides high on a camel under a striped canopy.
Bible in art · Genesis
Isaac Receives Rebekah
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
The engraver cut this plate in pale, silvery tones: the low sun is behind the travelers, who seem to come out of a bright haze. It is one of Doré’s designs for the Tours Bible of 1866.
Rebekah rides in under a striped canopy fixed to her camel’s saddle; servants lead the animal and more riders follow. At the right, by the steps of a columned building, a man in a dark robe raises his hand in greeting — Isaac. Men at the left watch them come.
From the text
- “looking up, he saw the camels approaching” (Genesis 24:63)
- Rebekah “got down from her camel” (Genesis 24:64)
- Isaac brought her “into the tent of his mother Sarah” (Genesis 24:67)
The artist’s own
- A stone building with columns and steps instead of a field and a tent
- A striped sunshade over Rebekah’s saddle
- A whole crowd of onlookers at the meeting
Details
Rebekah
Isaac
A man in a dark robe at the steps raises his hand toward the caravan.
The columns
A columned porch, Doré’s own architecture.
Onlookers
Men at the left turn to watch the caravan arrive.
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. 19 · 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.