The two women embrace, cheek to cheek.
Bible in art · Ruth
Naomi and Her Daughters-in-Law
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
Doré signed this plate at the bottom left and the engraving firm Pannemaker-Doms at the right. Nearly half of it is empty sky, cut in long, even horizontal lines that give the page its stillness.
On a bare ridge above a wide valley with a winding river, two women hold each other close, cheek to cheek. A little apart, a third walks away with her face hidden in her hand. Nothing else moves; the pale light and the empty land make the parting very quiet.
From the text
- “Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her” (Ruth 1:14)
- “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people” (Ruth 1:15)
- “wherever you go, I will go” (Ruth 1:16)
The artist’s own
- Orpah leaving with her face in her hand — the text says only that they all wept
- A wide river valley seen from the hill
- Long hooded cloaks for all three women
Details
Ruth and Naomi
Orpah
She turns away, weeping, to go back home.
The valley
A river winds across the plain below the hill.
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. 71 · 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.