She has stopped with a jar on her shoulder and looks back, pale as a statue.
Bible in art · Genesis
The Flight of Lot
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
Doré liked to build a whole plate around one bright figure set against darkness. Here it is Lot’s wife, standing pale as stone, while the engraver H. Pisan cut the rest of the scene in heavy, dark lines.
Lot hurries forward with his two daughters, his arms around them, their faces turned away. Behind them, on a rise, his wife has stopped with a water jar on her shoulder and looks back. Far off the cities of the plain burn under a wall of smoke; at the right stands a white walled town.
From the text
- “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26)
- The LORD rained down “sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah” (Genesis 19:24)
- Lot reached Zoar as the sun rose (Genesis 19:23)
The artist’s own
- Lot’s wife carrying a tall water jar, as if caught in the middle of a day’s work
- The daughters close in Lot’s arms — the text does not say how they walked
- Night darkness, though the text speaks of sunrise
Details
Lot’s wife
Lot and his daughters
Lot hurries on with an arm around each of his daughters.
The burning plain
Flames and black smoke rise over the cities on the plain.
The town
A walled town gleams white on the right, perhaps Zoar.
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. 13 · 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.