Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael

Rembrandt · 1637
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Rembrandt etched this little plate in Amsterdam in 1637, signing and dating it in the upper corner. It is barely 13 cm high.

Abraham steps out of his house with his arms spread, half sending Hagar away, half holding on. She turns aside and wipes her eyes; the boy walks off ahead. Sarah watches from a window and young Isaac from the door.

From the text

Sarah wanting the slave woman and her son sent away (Genesis 21:10)

Abraham’s distress (Genesis 21:11)

Hagar sent off early in the morning with the boy and water (Genesis 21:14)

The artist’s own

Sarah and Isaac watching from window and doorway

Ishmael as a small boy with a toy-like sword, dressed in Rembrandt’s Eastern costume

A stone house with an arch, and a dog on the steps

Details

Abraham

He steps down from the house, arms spread, his face sad.

Hagar in tears

She turns away and holds a cloth to her eyes; a flask hangs at her side.

Ishmael

The boy walks off ahead, a sword and a bag at his side.

At the window

An old woman, usually taken as Sarah, leans out to watch.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.7237) · Etching with touches of drypoint · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)

The verses

Gen 21:9–14But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son, and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!” Now this matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son Ishmael. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned. But I will also make a nation of the slave woman’s son, because he is your offspring.” Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.