Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael

Rembrandt · c. 1650
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

About thirteen years after his etching of this scene, Rembrandt drew it again with a pen, around 1650. The drawing was made for study; he rubbed some lines with a wet finger to soften them.

The etching shows a sharp break: Hagar turns away in tears. Here the three stand close together in a quiet farewell — Abraham touches the boy’s head, and Hagar leans towards him, the water flask in her hand.

From the text

The skin of water given to Hagar (Genesis 21:14)

Hagar and the boy sent away together (Genesis 21:14)

The artist’s own

A tender goodbye rather than the tears of his etching

A woman watching from a balustrade, usually taken as Sarah

Details

Abraham

The old man in a turban bends over the boy and lays his hand on his head.

The flask

Hagar leans towards Abraham, a water flask hanging from her hand.

Ishmael

Seen from behind, the boy holds a long staff for the road.

Looking on

A woman leans on a balustrade in the background and watches.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Gift of C. Hofstede de Groot, The Hague; RP-T-1930-2) · Pen and brown ink, some areas deliberately rubbed with a finger or wet brush; framing line in brown ink · Image: "Public Domain" (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/); object metadata: CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) — Rijksmuseum Linked Art record.