86 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - 58 Old Master Artists Portray The Life of Abraham, with footnotes, #10

Artists: Adi Holzer, Adriaen van der Werff, Aert de Gelder, Bartholomeus Spranger, Bartolo di Fredi, Caravaggio, Carel Febritius , Carle or Charles-André van Loo, Charles Lock Eastlake, Charles Lock Eastlake, Christian, Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, Dieric Bouts, Domenico Zampieri, François-Joseph Navez, Fritz von Uhde, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Giovanni Benedetto, Gastiglione, Giovanni Lanfranco, Giovanni Muzzioli, Govert Flinck, Guercino, Henry Davenport Northrop, Jacob Jordaens, Jacques Joseph Tissot, Jan Provoost, Jan Soens, Jan Victors, Jean Charles Cazin, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet, Johann Conrad Seekatz, Johann Friedrich Overbeck, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, József Molnár, Karel Dujardin, Lars  Justinen, Maerten van Heemskerck, Marc Chagall, Marshall Claxton, Matthias Stom , MOSTAERT, Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem , Peter Paul Rubens, Pieter Lastman, Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, Rembrandt, Salvador Dali, Sebastiano Ricci , Sir Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Christian Wink, Tom Lovell , Wenceslaus Hollar, Willem Bartsius, Willem van Herp, William Brassey Hole, 


Terah (Azar, in Arabic) the tenth in descent from Noah (Nuh), begat three sons, according to the Bible's internal chronology, Abraham was born in the year 1948 from Creation (1813 BCE), Abram (Ibrahim ibn Azar), Nahor, and Haran. Haran begat Lot (who was thus Abram's nephew), and died in his native city, Ur of the Chaldees. Abram married Sarai, who was barren. (Ibrahim's father,  Azar, threatened to stone his son to death if he did not cease in preaching to the people. Azar was a well known idol sculptor).

Tom Lovell (1909 – 1997)
Young Abraham Travels With Family Up Euphrates Valley
I have no further description, at this time

Tom Lovell (5 February 1909 – 29 June 1997) was an American illustrator and painter. He was a prolific creator of pulp fiction magazine covers and illustrations, and of visual art of the American West. He produced illustrations for National Geographic magazine, and many others, and painted many historical Western subjects such as interactions between Indians and white settlers and traders. He was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1974 More on Tom Lovell

Terah, with Abram, Sarai, and Lot, then departed for Canaan, but settled in a place named Haran, where Terah died at the age of 205. 

File:Molnár Ábrahám kiköltözése 1850.jpg
József Molnár (1821–1899)
Abraham's Journey from Ur to Canaan, c. 1850
oil on canvas
Height: 112 cm (44.1 in). Width: 130 cm (51.2 in).
Hungarian National Gallery

József Molnár (21 March 1821 - 6 March 1899) was a Hungarian painter. Molnár was born in Zsámbék and studied in Venice, Rome and Munich. After his studies, he settled down in Stuttgart, where he earned money by painting portraits. He returned to Hungary in 1853 and started painting landscapes and historic paintings in Pest. More on József Molnár

God had told Abram to leave his country and kindred and go to a land that he would show him, and promised to make of him a great nation, bless him, make his name great, Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the substance and souls that they had acquired, and traveled to Shechem in Canaan. 

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Abraham Journeying to the Land of Canaan
Oil on canvas
85.1 x 99.1 cm
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (baptized 23 March 1609 – 5 May 1664) was an Italian Baroque artist, painter, printmaker and draftsman, of the Genoese school. He is best known now for his elaborate engravings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monotyping. He was known as Il Grechetto in Italy and in France as Le Benédette. More on Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione

There was a severe famine in the land of Canaan, so that Abram and Lot and their households, traveled south to Egypt. On the way Abram told his wife Sarai to say that she was his sister, so that the Egyptians would not kill him. 

File:Tissot Abram's Counsel to Sarai.jpg
James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902)
Abram's Counsel to Sarai, c. 1896-1902
Gouache on board
6 x 8 1/8 in. (15.2 x 20.7 cm),
Jewish Museum, New York

Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), Anglicized as James Tissot, was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of Paris society before moving to London in 1871. He became famous as a genre painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life. He also painted scenes and characters from the Bible. More on Jacques Joseph Tissot

(In Egypt was a despotic Pharaoh who had the passionate desire to take possession of married women). When they entered Egypt, the Pharaoh's officials praised Sarai's beauty to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace, and Abram was given provisions: "oxen, and he-asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she-asses, and camels". 

Giovanni Muzzioli (1854-1894)
Abraham and Sarah in the Court of Pharaoh, c. 1875
Oil on canvas
cm 167 (la) 115.5 (a) 
Museo Civico, Modena, Italy

Giovanni Muzzioli (February 10, 1854 – August 5, 1894) was an Italian painter, was born in Modena, after his family had moved from Castelvetro. At the age of 15 years, he began to attend the local Academy of Fine Arts of Modena, working under Antonio Simonazzi and Asioli. At the age of seventeen (1871) he gained the Poletti scholarship entitling him to four years residence in Rome studying at the Accademia di San Luca, working first under professor Podesti, and later after 1874 under professor Coghetti. In Rome, he painted an Abraham and Sarah at the court of the Pharaoh, a painting which he sent back to Modena.

Soon thereafter, he moved to Florence, where he remained the rest of his life. After his return to Modena, Muzzioli visited the Paris Exhibition, and there came under the influence of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and began painting subjects from classical history of Greece and Rome. His first important pictures were In the Temple of Bacchus and Funeral Rites in Egypt (1881, Milan Exhibition), where the former won a prize of 1000 lire. He captures the epoch, the people, the environment, with a truth, with enviable evidence, (there is here) no phantasmagoria, none of the sophisticated pomp of a scenographer.

At the Esposizione of Venice of 1887 he exhibited September Sun, while in 1888 to Bologna he sent the Funeral of Britannicus. This latter painting was bought by signor Lionello Cavalieri of Ferrara, and is considered his masterpiece, and was much lauded at the Bologna Exhibition. Another work by Muzzioli was Le feste dì Flora.

From 1878 to his death (1894) Muzzioli lived in Florence, where he painted the altarpiece for the church of Castelvetro. Muzzioli was named professor of the Academies of Modena, Florence, and other cities. More on Giovanni Muzzioli


Henry Davenport Northrop, D.D. 
Pharaoh Takes Sarah
Published by International Publishing Company, 1894

James Tissot (1836–1902)
Sarai Is Taken to Pharaoh's Palace, c. 1896-1902
gouache on cardboard
20.5 × 30.7 cm (8.1 × 12.1 in)
The Jewish Museum (New York City)

Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), See above

However, God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with great plagues, for which he tried to find the reason. Upon discovering that Sarai was a married woman, Pharaoh demanded that they and their household leave immediately, along with all their goods. (But the protection of the Almighty saved her from Pharaoh's evil plot.  When Pharaoh summoned Sarah to act on his demented passions, Sarah turned to God in prayer.  The moment Pharaoh reached for Sarah, his upper body stiffened.  He cried to Sarah in distress, promising to release her if she would pray for his cure!  She prayed for his release.  But only after a failed third attempt did he finally desist.  Realizing their special nature, he let her go and returned her to her supposed brother).
File:Wenceslas Hollar - Abraham and Lot separating (State 2).jpg
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677)
Abraham and Lot separating. State 2.
7 x 10 cm.
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Wenceslaus Hollar, Bohemian Vaclav Hollar, Wenceslaus also given as Wenzel   (born July 23, 1607, Prague—died March 25, 1677, London), Bohemian etcher whose works are a rich source of information about the 17th century.

Hollar went to Frankfurt in 1627 where he studied under the engraver and publisher Matthäus Merian, later moving to Strasbourg, and then to Cologne in 1633. There he attracted the attention of the collector Thomas, earl of Arundel, with whom he was associated for most of his life. Hollar settled in England in 1637, but moved to Antwerp in about 1644, and returned to London in 1652.

He was a master etcher, and his work is still much appreciated by connoisseurs. He illustrated a number of books and produced the celebrated Views of London after the Great Fire of 1666. Some 3,000 plates are credited to him. He died in extreme poverty. More on Wenceslaus Hollar

(Sarah returned while Abraham was praying, accompanied by gifts from the Pharaoh, as he had realized their special nature, along with his own daughter Hagar as well, as a handmaiden.  She had delivered a powerful message to the Pharaoh and the pagan Egyptians).

When they came back to the Bethel and Hai area (Palestine), Abram's and Lot's sizable livestock herds occupied the same pastures. This became a problem for the herdsmen who were assigned to each family's cattle. The conflicts between herdsmen had become so troublesome that Abram graciously suggested that Lot choose a separate area, either on the left hand (north) or on the right hand (south), that there be no conflict amongst brethren. But Lot chose to go east to the plain of Jordan where the land was well watered everywhere as far as Zoar, and he dwelled in the cities of the plain toward Sodom. Abram went south to Hebron and settled in the plain of Mamre, where he built another altar to worship God.

File:SG OT Abraham and Lot go separate ways, Bartolo di Fredi.JPG
Bartolo di Fredi
Abraham and Lot go separate ways, c. XIV century
 The Santa Fina Chapel in the Chiesa Collegiata, San Gimignano

Andrea del Castagno, pseudonym of Andrea di Bartolo di Simone   (born c. 1419, Castagno d’Andrea, near Florence [Italy]—died August 19, 1457, Florence), one of the most influential 15th-century Italian Renaissance painters, best known for the emotional power and naturalistic treatment of figures in his work.

Little is known of Castagno’s early life, and it is also difficult to ascertain the stages of his artistic development owing to the loss of many of his paintings and to the scarcity of documents regarding his extant works. As a youth, he was precocious. He executed a mural of Cosimo de’ Medici’s adversaries (rebels hanging by their heels) at the Palazzo del Podestà in Florence, earning himself the byname Andreino degli Impiccati (“Little Andrea of the Hanged Men”). It is known that he went to Venice in 1442, and frescoes in the chapel of San Tarasio in San Zaccaria are signed and dated by both him and Francesco da Faenza.

In 1451 Castagno continued the frescoes at Sant’Egidio begun earlier by Domenico Veneziano. The light tones that Castagno adopted for his outstanding St. Julian (1454–55) show Domenico’s influence.

In a work for a loggia of the Villa Carducci Pandolfini at Legnaia, Castagno broke with earlier styles and painted a larger-than-life-size series of Famous Men and Women, within a painted framework. In this series Castagno displayed more than mere craftsmanship; he portrayed movement of body and facial expression, creating dramatic tension. Castagno set the figures in painted architectural niches, thus giving the impression that they are actual sculptural forms. His last dated work (in Florence Cathedral) is an equestrian portrait of Niccolò da Tolentino. Castagno’s emotionally expressive realism was strongly influenced by Donatello, Domenico, and perhaps Piero della Francesca, and Castagno’s work in turn influenced succeeding generations of Florentine painters, including Antonio del. More on Bartolo di Fredi

In the days of Lot, before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Elamite king Chedorlaomer had subdued the tribes and cities surrounding the Jordan River plain. After thirteen years, four kings of the cities of the Jordan plain revolted against Chedorlaomer's rule. The revolt started with their refusal to pay tribute to King Chedorlaomer. In response, Chedorlaomer and three other northern kings started a campaign against Bera, the king of Sodom, and the three other southern kings with him

During the rebellion of the Jordan River cities against Elam, Abram's nephew, Lot, was taken prisoner along with his entire household by the invading Elamite forces. The Elamite army came to collect the spoils of war, after having just defeated the king of Sodom's armies. Lot and his family, at the time, were settled on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Sodom which made them a visible target.

One person who escaped capture came and told Abram what happened. Once Abram received this news, he immediately assembled 318 trained servants. Abram's force headed north in pursuit of the Elamite army, who were already worn down from the Battle of Siddim. When they caught up with them at Dan, Abram devised a battle plan by splitting his group into more than one unit, and launched a night raid. Not only were they able to free the captives, Abram's unit chased and slaughtered the Elamite King Chedorlaomer at Hobah, just north of Damascus. They freed Lot, as well as his household and possessions, and recovered all of the goods from Sodom that had been taken.


Maerten van Heemskerck, 16th century
Abraham Receiving the Blessing of Melchizedek
Oil on panel 
99 × 105.5 cm.
Unknown Location

Maerten van Heemskerck,  (born 1498, Heemskerck, Holland—died 1574, Haarlem), one of the leading Mannerist painters in 16th-century Holland working in the Italianate manner.

He spent a period (c. 1528) in the Haarlem studio of Jan van Scorel, then lately returned from Italy. Van Heemskerck’s earliest works—“Ecce Homo” (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Ghent) and “St. Luke Painting the Portrait of the Virgin” (Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem), both dated 1532—while adhering closely to the Romanist style of Scorel, seek to outdo it by dramatic lighting and illusionistic effects of plasticity.

From 1532 to 1535 he was in Rome, recording in innumerable sketches, some of which are preserved in Berlin, the architecture and sculpture of classical antiquity and the painting of the High Renaissance. Of the latter he directed his attention particularly to the frescoes of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel and those of Raphael in the Villa Farnesina.

Throughout the rest of his long career, which was spent almost exclusively in Haarlem, he drew liberally on this garnered store of Roman motifs. Among the more notable of the religious paintings of his maturity are a great “Crucifixion” altarpiece (1538–43; Linköping cathedral, Sweden) and a “Crucifixion” (1543, Ghent). He also painted portraits, among them a self-portrait with the Colosseum (1553; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Eng.) and the well-known “Portrait of a Woman at the Spinning Wheel” (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). From 1548 onward he produced many designs for engravings. More on Maerten van Heemskerck


Thomas Christian Wink (1738-1797)
Abraham and Melchizedek, c. 1770
oil on copper
Germanisches Nationalmuseum

Thomas Christian Wink (1738-1797). One of the last great artists of the Rococo era, Winck is best known as a painter and engraver of allegorical and religious subjects. Following his apprenticeships with Anton Scheidler (active 1745-c.1775) and Jacob Feichtmayr (active 1735-1767), Winck became one of the most sought-after fresco and altarpiece artists in Bavaria, patronised by both the church and the nobility. In 1769, he was appointed court painter to the Elector of Bavaria, signing his works, 'Aulae Bojcae Pictor' (Bavarian Court Painter). More on Thomas Christian Wink

Loggia di Raffaello
Abraham and Melchizedek, c. 1515/18
 Fresco
The Loggia (fresco cycle), Vatican, Rome.

The Loggia of Raphael is a room on the second floor of the Apostolic Palace , in Vatican City , adjacent to the rooms and part of the complex of the Lodges . It is famous for a series of frescoes of the school of Raphael reproducing decorations with biblical stories, dated between the end of 1517 or in 1518 and 1519 .

A second loggia already painted by Raphael is the so-called First Loggia , on the main floor (completely repainted by Alessandro Mantovani in the second half of the nineteenth century); a third is the Loggia of Cardinal Bibbiena , on the third floor. The three lodges, overlooking courtyard of San Damaso, form the complex of the Lodges of Raphael or Vatican Loggia .More on Loggia di Raffaello

File:Meeting of abraham and melchizadek.jpg
Dieric Bouts the Elder
Meeting of Abram and Melchizedek
painting circa 1464–1467
The Church of Saint Peter, Leuven, Belgium

Dieric Bouts (born ca. 1415 – 6 May 1475) was an Early Netherlandish painter. Bouts was born in Haarlem and was mainly active in Leuven (Louvain), where he was the city painter from 1468. Very little is actually known about Bouts' early life, but he was greatly influenced by Jan van Eyck and by Rogier van der Weyden, under whom he may have studied. He is first documented in Leuven in 1457 and worked there until his death in 1475.

Bouts was among the first northern painters to demonstrate the use of a single vanishing point (as illustrated in his Last Supper). His work has a certain primitive stiffness of drawing, and his figures are often disproportionately long and angular, but his pictures are highly expressive, well designed and rich in colour, with especially good landscape backgrounds. More on Dieric Bouts

File:Peter Paul Rubens - The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek - WGA20435.jpg
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)
The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, c. 1625
oil on panel
Height: 66 cm (26 in). Width: 82 cm (32.3 in).
National Gallery of Art

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), See Below

Melchizedek Priest of the God Most High. Perhaps the most mysterious, enigmatic and intriguing figure in all of the Old Testament is Melchizedek the Canaanite priest who makes a brief appearance in the Old Testament in Genesis. He is also mentioned in the Book of Psalms and is referred to eight times in the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews. Speculation, conjecture, and sometimes just pure wild guessing is set forth to explain exactly who this cryptic figure was. More on Melchizedek Priest of the God Most High.

This painting is a modello, or oil sketch, for a tapestries. It depicts the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek (Genesis 14:1–20). Returning victorious from battle, Abraham is greeted by Melchizedek, high priest and king of Salem, who presents him with loaves of bread as attendants bring vessels of wine. Catholic theologians considered the scene to prefigure the Eucharist. More on this painting

Upon Abram's return, Sodom's king came out to meet with him in the Valley of Shaveh, the "king's dale". Also, Melchizedek king of Salem (Jerusalem), a priest of God Most High, brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram and God. Abram then gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. The king of Sodom then offered to let Abram keep all the possessions if he would merely return his people. Although he released the captives, Abram refused any reward from the king of Sodom, other than the share to which his allies were entitled. 

Tom Lovell (1909 – 1997)
 Abraham’s Wife, Sara, And A Slave Bargain For Cloth In A Marketplace
Gouache on paper board
3 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. (9.5 x 9.5 cm.)
Private collection

Abram and Sarai tried to make sense of how he would become a progenitor of nations since after 10 years of living in Canaan, no child had been born. Sarai then offered her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, for Abram to consort with so that he may have a child by her, as his wife. (As the gifting of a handmaid by a barren woman to her husband in order to produce offspring seems to have been a common practice of that day, Sarah suggested to Abraham that he take Hagar as his concubine.  Some Christian scholars say of this event that he actually took her as his wife.  Whichever case it may be, in Jewish and Babylonian tradition, any offspring born to a concubine would be claimed by the concubine’s former mistress and be treated exactly the same as a child born to her, including matters of inheritance).

Tom Lovell (1909 – 1997), See above

Adriaen van der Werff (1659–1722)
Sarah presenting Hagar to Abraham, c. 1699
oil on canvas
Height: 76.3 cm (30 in). Width: 61 cm (24 in).
Staatsgalerie im Neuen Schloss, Schleißheim

Adriaen van der Werff (21 January 1659 – 12 November 1722) was an accomplished Dutch painter of portraits and erotic, devotional and mythological scenes. His brother, Pieter van der Werff (1661–1722), was his principal pupil and assistant.

At the age of ten he started to take lessons, two years later moving in with Eglon van der Neer, specializing in clothes and draperie. At the age of seventeen he founded his own studio in Rotterdam where he later became the head of guild of Saint Luc. In 1696, he was paid a visit by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine and his wife, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. The couple ordered two paintings to be sent to Cosimo III of Tuscany, Anna Maria Luisa's father, in Florence. During the next years Van der Werff traveled regularly between Düsseldorf and his home town. In 1703, he became the official court painter and a knight, when his former teacher and predecessor Van der Neer died. Van der Werff, with a perfect technique, was paid extremely well by the Elector for his biblical or classical (erotic) paintings. In 1705, he painted a portrait of Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1716, he lost his job when the Elector died because the treasury was empty.

Van der Werff became one of the most lauded Dutch painters of his day, gaining a European reputation and an enormous fortune. Arnold Houbraken, writing in 1718, considered him the greatest of the Dutch painters and this was the prevailing critical opinion throughout the 18th century: however, his reputation suffered in the 19th century, when he was alleged to have betrayed the Dutch naturalistic tradition. In the Victorian Age people could not appreciate his art, so most of his work went into the cellars of the Alte Pinakothek.

Van der Werff also practised as an architect in Rotterdam, where he designed a few houses. More on Adriaen van der Werff

Painting Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham:
Matthias Stom  (fl. 1615–1649)
Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, between 1637 and 1639
Oil on canvas
Height: 113 cm (44.4 ″); Width: 168 cm (66.1 ″)
Gemäldegalerie, State Museums of Berlin

This one shows Hagar already getting undressed, and she seems to be concerned for Abraham, reaching out to him, but with a little encouragement from Sarah. Abraham seems a bit not bothered either way, though obviously is ready for bed. His left hand and eyes seem to say “you sure?”, though who he might be directing the question to is debatable. More

Matthias Stom or Matthias Stomer (c. 1600 – after 1652) was a Dutch golden age painter considered one of the masters of Utrecht Caravaggism. Stom spent most of his artistic life in Italy, and 200 of his works have been preserved. It is conjectured that Stom was born at Amersfoort or in the Utrecht area, but many details of his life are vague. An early mention of Stom was around 1630, when he lived in the same location as Paulus Bor had lived a few years earlier. He was a pupil of Gerard van Honthorst in Rome after 1615.

He remained in Rome until 1632, after which he traveled to Naples, where he stayed until 1640. He then moved to Palermo, and delivered paintings for churches in Caccamo and Monreale. He sold three paintings to Antonio Ruffo, duke of Messina. It is speculated that he died in Sicily, or alternatively in Northern Italy, where in 1652 he painted an altar piece for the church in Chiuduno. More on Matthias Stom or Matthias Stomer

Follower of Bartholomeus Spranger
Sarah presenting Hagar to Abraham, c. 16th century
Oil on Canvas
28 x 18
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Abraham seems distracted by her naked breasts, while Sarah looks a little like she’s trying to convince him it’s a good idea. He isn’t really listening though. While Abraham looks relatively ‘old testament’, Hagar doesn’t look that Egyptian. She is obviously a fine figure of a woman though, and is wearing some very thin material over her hip. Why the artist bothered with that I’m not sure, unless its just to suggest some tension, something holding her back (barely). More on this painting

Bartholomeus Spranger (21 March 1546 in Antwerp – 1611 in Prague) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, sculptor and etcher who became a painter to the imperial court in Prague. His unique style combining elements of Netherlandish painting and Italian influences, in particular the Roman Mannerists, had an important influence on other artists in Prague and beyond. More on Bartholomeus Spranger

French School, 18th Century
Sarah presenting Hagar to Abraham
11.5 X 12.5 in (29.21 X 31.75 cm)
Oil on paper laid down on board
Private collection

The Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) was established in 1648. It oversaw—and held a monopoly over—the arts in France until 1793. The institution provided indispensable training for artists through both hands-on instruction and lectures, access to prestigious commissions, and the opportunity to exhibit their work. Significantly, it also controlled the arts by privileging certain subjects and by establishing a hierarchy among its members. This hierarchical structure ultimately led to the Académie’s dissolution during the French Revolution. However, the Académie in Paris became the model for many art academies across Europe and in the colonial Americas. More on Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture

Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich
Sarah Offering Hagar To Abraham
Oil on Canvas
33.2 by 49.1 cm., 13.07 x 19.33 in
Private collection

Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (October 30, 1712 – April 23, 1774) was a German painter and art administrator. In his own works, he was adept at imitating many earlier artists, but never developed a style of his own. More on Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich

After Hagar found she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress, Sarai. Therefore, Sarai mistreated Hagar, and Hagar fled away. 

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout  (1621–1674)
Hagar Weeping, early 1640s
Oil on canvas
76.2 × 68.6 cm (30 × 27 in.)
Getty Center, Los Angeles, California

This painting was cut from a larger canvas, so we have only part of the original scene. Is this Hagar's first flight from Sarah, or fourteen years later when she is cast into the desert with her son? I would guess it is the former, since Hagar seems like a young girl in this painting, rather than a mature woman. She is turning to look up at the angel behind her, the positioning of her beautiful hand suggesting that she is taken aback by what she sees.

van den Eeckhout was another of Rembrandt's pupils, probably studying with him in the late 1630's. But the style of this painting shows that he had moved away from Rembrandt's influence and was painting images that were clearer and more precise than his teacher's. More on this painting

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, in full Gerbrand Janszoon van den Eeckhout   (born August 19, 1621, Amsterdam, Netherlands—buried September 29, 1674, Amsterdam), Dutch artist and poet who mastered several media, including metalwork, etching, and drawing, but is perhaps best known for his biblical, genre, and group and individual portrait paintings. He was a gifted and favourite pupil of Rembrandt (1635–40), to whom he remained a close friend. Van den Eeckhout’s style, particularly in the biblical paintings, is based so closely on that of his master that many of his pictures have been taken as works by Rembrandt himself. Van den Eeckhout was one of the most successful of this school in adopting the broader and bolder technique of Rembrandt’s mature style. More on Gerbrand van den Eeckhout

Carel Fabritius
Hagar and the Angel, c. 1643-5
Oil on canvas
158 x 136 cm
Residenzgalerie, Salzburg

This too seems to be an image of Hagar's first vision of the angel - there is no sign of Ishmael. Sarah has forced the younger woman to leave the safety of the tribe and go out into the desert. Alone in the terrifying wilderness, Hagar senses the presence of another being, the Angel of God. She seems too frightened or perhaps too wary to face the Angel directly.

Carel Febritius was a pupil of Rembrandt's, the only one who developed a style completely his own, the only one to step out from under his teacher's shadow. As a young man he worked as a carpenter, and at first only took up painting as a sideline. His talent soon became evident, and he moved to Delft, where he had a strong influence on Vermeer. His paintings, however, are rare, since only about a dozen of them survived a terrible explosion in a gunpowder factory in Delft, which also killed him at the early age of 32. More on Carel Febritius

En route an angel spoke with Hagar at the fountain in the way to Shur. He instructed her to return and that her son would be "a wild ass of a man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren." 

File:Hagar and the Angel LACMA M.85.117.jpg
Pieter Lastman (Holland, 1583-1633)
Hagar and the Angel, c. 1614
Oil on wood
20 x 26 7/8 in. (50.8 x 68.3 cm)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Pieter Lastman, (born 1583, Amsterdam—buried April 4, 1633, Amsterdam, Neth.), Dutch painter of biblical and mythological scenes in antique landscapes who had a strong influence on the young Rembrandt, who worked in his Amsterdam studio in 1624.

Lastman received his earliest training from a pupil of Cornelis van Haarlem, a painter of the post-Renaissance Mannerist school. He also shared stylistic affinities with Hendrik Goltzius, another prominent painter in Haarlem. He worked in Rome about 1603–07, where he was profoundly influenced by an important German landscape painter, Adam Elsheimer. By the time he returned to Amsterdam in 1607, he had assimilated Elsheimer’s sensitive feeling for light and atmosphere in landscape. Rembrandt’s Angel and the Prophet Balaam (1626) is based on Lastman’s earlier painting of the same subject (1622). Lastman’s Coriolanus and the Roman Woman and The Baptism of the Chamberlain also influenced the early narrative style of Rembrandt. More on Pieter Lastman

She was told to call her son Ishmael. Hagar then called God who spoke to her "El-roi", ("Thou God seest me:" KJV). From that day, the well was called Beer-lahai-roi, ("The well of him that liveth and seeth me." She then did as she was instructed by returning to her mistress in order to have her child. Abram was eighty-six years of age when Ishmael was born. 

Thirteen years later, when Abram was ninety-nine years of age, God declared Abram's new name: "Abraham" – "a father of many nations".  Abraham then received the instructions for the covenant, of which circumcision was to be the sign. Then God declared Sarai's new name: "Sarah" and blessed her and told Abraham, "I will give thee a son also of her". But Abraham laughed, and "said in his heart, 'Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?'" immediately after Abraham's encounter with God, he had his entire household of men, including himself and Ishmael, circumcised.

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902)
Abraham and the Three Angels, c. 1896-1902
Gouache on board, 
7 3/4 x 11 5/16 in. (19.8 x 28.8 cm)
The Jewish Museum, New York

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902),  See above

File:Rembrandt Abraham Serving the Three Angels.jpg
Rembrandt  (1606–1669)
Abraham serving the angels, 1 January 1646
Oil on panel
height: 16.1 cm (6.3 in); width: 21.1 cm (8.3 in)
Private collection

Jan Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, (1606–1669)
Abraham Entertaining the Angels, c. 1656
Etching and drypoint on laid paper
158 x 131 mm.
Private collection

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres in painting.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters. Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization. More on Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Not long afterward, during the heat of the day, Abraham had been sitting at the entrance of his tent by the terebinths of Mamre. He looked up and saw three men in the presence of God. Then he ran and bowed to the ground to welcome them. 

Sebastiano Ricci (1 August 1659 – 15 May 1734)
Abraham and the Angels, c. 1694
Oil on canvas
285x222 cm

Sebastiano Ricci (1 August 1659 – 15 May 1734) was one of the principal figures in the revival of Venetian painting in the 1700s. Ricci's dramatic and sumptuous work appealed to ecclesiastical and royal patrons across Europe. His painting was indebted both to Paolo Veronese and other Italian painters of the 1500s and looked ahead to the next generation of Venetian artists including Giambattista Tiepolo and Antonio Guardi. 

Ricci began his training in Venice but following a charge of attempted murder, he departed for Bologna in 1681. Over the next fifteen years, Ricci was almost constantly on the move and is known to have worked in Parma, Rome, and Milan. His brushes with the law persisted but Ricci established his career as a decorative painter producing frescos and paintings for churches and palaces. 

Ricci finally returned to Venice in 1696 and received many commissions in the region. He also accepted important commissions in Vienna and Florence and in 1711 traveled to England with his nephew Marco, also an established painter. The luminous, decorative works Ricci produced for the British aristocracy secured his international reputation. In his later years, he increasingly collaborated with his nephew, creating works across Europe until shortly before his death in 1734. More on Sebastiano Ricci

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout  (1621–1674) 
Abraham and the Three Angels, c. 1656
Oil on canvas
height: 71 cm (27.9 in); width: 82 cm (32.2 in)
Hermitage Museum

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, in full Gerbrand Janszoon van den Eeckhout   (born August 19, 1621, Amsterdam, Netherlands—buried September 29, 1674, Amsterdam. See above

Abraham then offered to wash their feet and fetch them a morsel of bread, of which they assented. Abraham rushed to Sarah's tent to order cakes made from choice flour, then he ordered a servant-boy to prepare a choice calf. When all was prepared, he set curds, milk and the calf before them, waiting on them, under a tree, as they ate.

Willem van Herp  (circa 1613/1614–1677)
Abraham and the three angels, c. 17th century
Oil on canvas
height: 83 cm (32.6 in); width: 120 cm (47.2 in)
Unidentified location  

Willem van Herp or Willem van Herp the Elder (Antwerp, c. 1614–1677) was a Flemish Baroque painter specializing in religious paintings and small cabinet paintings of "low-life" genre scenes. For a long time Willem van Herp was believed to have been a pupil of Peter Paul Rubens. Even though he was not his pupil he did borrow many of Rubens' motifs and touched up copies after Rubens for the art dealer Matthijs Musson. He is said to have trained with the minor artists Damiaan Wortelmans II and Hans Biermans. He may have spent some time abroad after his training. He was listed as an independent master in the Guild of St. Luke beginning in 1637. He spent his entire career in Antwerp. More on Willem van Herp

File:Aert de Gelder 009.jpg
Aert de Gelder (1645–1727)
Abraham and the Angels, between 1680 and 1685
oil on canvas
Height: 111 cm (43.7 in). Width: 174 cm (68.5 in).
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Aert de Gelder, Aert also spelled Arent    (born Oct. 26, 1645, Dordrecht, United Provinces [now the Netherlands]—died Aug. 28, 1727, Dordrecht), the only Dutch artist of the late 17th and early 18th century to paint in the tradition of Rembrandt’s late style.

De Gelder spent his life in Dordrecht, except for a period of time about 1661 when he was Rembrandt’s pupil in Amsterdam. His biblical paintings—e.g., Scenes from the Passion (c. 1715)—feature warm colour and atmospheric light. In his portraits—e.g., The Family of Herman Boerhave (c. 1722)—his bold, broad manner of brushwork and surface texture contrasts markedly with the refined techniques and smoothly finished canvases of his contemporaries. More on Aert de Gelder

One of the visitors told Abraham that upon his return next year, Sarah would have a son. While at the tent entrance, Sarah overheard what was said and she laughed to herself about the prospect of having a child at their ages. 

William Brassey Hole
Sarai overhearing the renewal of the promise
Oil on Canvas
I have no further description, at this time

William Brassey Hole RSA (7 November 1846 – 22 October 1917) was an English artist, illustrator, etcher and engraver, known for his industrial, historical and biblical scenes. Hole was born in Salisbury and educated at Edinburgh Academy, then served an apprenticeship as a civil engineer for 5 years.

In 1869, he sailed from Swansea to Genoa, and spent the next 6 months travelling and sketching around Italy. On returning to Edinburgh, Hole entered the School of Design, then won admission to the life school of the Royal Scottish Academy, first exhibiting there in 1873; in 1878. Around this time he took up etching and was accepted into the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers (RE) in 1885; he was already a member of the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society (RSW) from 1884. He eventually became a full member of the Academy (RSA).

Around 1900, he travelled to Palestine in order to study the background for biblical painting. There he began working on the 80 watercolours that would eventually appear as illustrations in his book "The Life of Jesus of Nazareth." In April to May 1906 these pictures were shown at an exhibition at the Fine Art Society in London. He also painted scenes from the Old Testament.

Hole died in Edinburgh in 1917. He is buried in the Grange Cemetery in the ground of James Lindsay in the centre of the north wall. His name is listed at the base of the monument along with other members of the Hole family. More on William Brassey Hole

File:Jan Provoost - Abraham, Sarah, and the Angel - WGA18441.jpg
Jan Provoost (1462–1525/1529)
Abraham, Sarah, and the Angel, c. 1520s
oil on panel
Louvre Museum

Jan Provoost, or Jean Provost, or Jan Provost (1462/65 – January 1529) was a Belgian painter born in Wallonië (Mons). He was one of the most famous Netherlandish painters of his generation.

Provost was born in Mons. He was a prolific master who left his early workshop in Valenciennes to run two workshops, one in Bruges, where he was made a burgher in 1494, the other simultaneously in Antwerp, which was the economic center of the Low Countries. Provost was also a cartographer, engineer, and architect. He met Albrecht Dürer in Antwerp in 1520, and a Dürer portrait drawing at the National Gallery, London, is conjectured to be of Provost. He married the widow of the miniaturist and painter Simon Marmion, after whose death he inherited the considerable Marmion estate. He died in Bruges.

The styles of Gerard David and Hans Memling can be detected in Provoost's religious paintings. The Last Judgement painted for the Bruges town hall in 1525 is the only painting for which documentary evidence identifies Provost. Surprising discoveries can still be made: in 1971 an unknown and anonymous panoramic Crucifixion from the village church at Koolkerke was identified as Provost's. It is on permanent loan to the Groeninge Museum, Bruges, which has several works of Provost: a retrospective exhibition took place in 2008–9. More on Jan Provoost

The visitor inquired of Abraham why Sarah laughed at bearing a child at her age, as nothing is too hard for God. Frightened, Sarah denied laughing.

Three Strangers Reveal The Future To Abraham
Tom Lovell (1909 – 1997)
Three Strangers Reveal The Future To Abraham
I have no further description, at this time

Tom Lovell (1909 – 1997), See above

Abraham and three Angels - Marc Chagall:
Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985)
Abraham and three Angels, c. 1966
oil on canvas
190 x 292 cm
Musée national Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice, France

Marc Chagall,  (born July 7, 1887, Vitebsk, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus]—died March 28, 1985, Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes, France), Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker, and designer. He composed his images based on emotional and poetic associations, rather than on rules of pictorial logic. Predating Surrealism, his early works, such as I and the Village (1911), were among the first expressions of psychic reality in modern art. His works in various media include sets for plays and ballets, etchings illustrating the Bible, and stained-glass windows. More on Marc Chagall

After eating, Abraham and the three visitors got up. They walked over to the peak that overlooked the 'cities of the plain' to discuss the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah for their detestable sins that were so great, it moved God to action. Because Abraham's nephew was living in Sodom, God revealed plans to confirm and judge these cities. At this point, the two other visitors left for Sodom. Then Abraham turned to God and pleaded decrementally with Him that "if there were at least ten righteous men found in the city, would not God spare the city?" For the sake of ten righteous people, God declared that he would not destroy the city. 

File:Peter Paul Rubens 076.jpg
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)
Lot and his family escaping from the doomed city guided by an angel, circa 1615
oil on canvas
203 × 229 cm (79.9 × 90.2 in)
Martin-von-Wagner-Museum

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. More on Sir Peter Paul Rubens

When the two visitors got to Sodom to conduct their report, they planned on staying in the city square. However, Abraham's nephew, Lot, met with them and strongly insisted that these two "men" stay at his house for the night. A rally of men stood outside of Lot's home and demanded that they bring out his guests so that they may "know" them. 

Salvador Dali, (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989)
The Sodomites, Dante's La Divine 
Wood Carving 
Edition 3900 ex
Private collection

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí de Pubol (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. Dali is among the most versatile and prolific artists of the twentieth century. Though chiefly remembered for his painterly output, in the course of his long career he successfully turned to sculpture, printmaking, fashion, advertising, writing, and, perhaps most famously, filmmaking in his collaborations with Luis Bunuel and Alfred Hitchcock. Dali was renowned for his flamboyant personality as much as for his undeniable technical virtuosity. In his early use of organic morphology, his work bears the stamp of fellow Spaniards Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. His paintings also evince a fascination for Classical and Renaissance art, clearly visible through his hyper-realistic style and religious symbolism of his later work. Dali is most often associated with the Surrealist movement, despite his formal expulsion from the group in 1934 for his reactionary political views. More on Salvador Dali

However, Lot objected and offered his virgin daughters who had not "known"  man to the rally of men instead. They rejected that notion and sought to break down Lot's door to get to his male guests, thus confirming that their "cry" had waxed great before God, and they would be destroyed.

Carle or Charles-André van Loo (15 February 1705 – 15 July 1765) 
The Blinding Of The Inhabitants Of Sodom
Oil on Canvas
381⁄4 x 521⁄4 in. (97.2 x 132.6 cm.)
Private collection

Carle or Charles-André van Loo (15 February 1705 – 15 July 1765) was a French subject painter, son of the painter Louis-Abraham van Loo, a younger brother of Jean-Baptiste van Loo and grandson of Jacob van Loo. He was the most famous member of a successful dynasty of painters of Dutch origin. His oeuvre includes every category: religion, history painting, mythology, portraiture, allegory, and genre scenes.

He was born in Nice, then part of the Duchy of Savoy. Van Loo followed his brother Jean-Baptiste to Turin, and then to Rome in 1712, where he studied under Benedetto Luti and the sculptor Pierre Legros. After leaving Italy in 1723, he worked in Paris, studied at the Académie Royale, where he gained first prize for drawing in 1723, and received the first prize for historical painting in 1727—as did his future rival François Boucher. After again visiting Turin in 1727, he was employed by king Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, for whom he painted a series of subjects illustrative of Tasso. In 1734 he settled in Paris, and in 1735 became a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and rose rapidly in the hierarchy of the academy. Madame de Pompadour and the French court were taking the artist under their patronage. He was decorated with the Order of Saint Michael and named First Painter to king Louis XV of France in 1762. He was a most successful court painter but his portraits as well as history paintings also enjoyed an enormous success throughout all Europe. He died in Paris on 15 July 1765. More on Carle or Charles-André van Loo

Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902)
Sodomites, c. 1896-1902
Gouache on board
7 5/8 × 6 11/16 in. (19.4 × 17 cm)
The Jewish Museum

Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), See above

Early the next morning, Abraham went to the place where he stood before God. He "looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah" and saw what became of the cities of the plain, where not even "ten righteous" had been found, as "the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace." 

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902)
Abraham Sees Sodom in Flames, circa 1896–1902
I have no further description, at this time

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902), See above

Abraham settled between Kadesh and Shur in the land of the Philistines. While he was living in Gerar, Abraham openly claimed that Sarah was his sister. Upon discovering this news, King Abimelech had her brought to him. 

Art on demand:
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein,  (Feb. 15, 1751 - June 26, 1829)
Abraham and Sarah before Abimelech, c. 1681
Oil on canvas
104.1x118.1 cms
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein,  (born Feb. 15, 1751, Haina, Hesse [Germany]—died June 26, 1829, Eutin, Oldenburg), German portraitist and friend of the writer J.W. von Goethe.

Tischbein began his career painting portraits at the Prussian court in Berlin. In 1779 he went to Italy and in 1789 was appointed director of the art academy in Naples. Forced to leave in 1799 because of war, the painter retired to northern Germany. Tischbein’s most famous painting, “Goethe in the Campagna,” was painted in 1787 at the time the two men traveled from Rome to Naples. Though Goethe induced the artist to turn his interest toward the Neoclassical movement, Tischbein was later influenced by the ideas of German Romanticism.


Tischbein belonged to a family that produced more than 20 artists in three generations. Others of importance include Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder (1722–89), who was a court painter in Kassel, in Hesse, and the portraitists Johann Valentin Tischbein (1715–68) and Anton Wilhelm Tischbein (1730–1804) More on Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein

God then came to Abimelech in a dream and declared that taking her would result in death because she was a man's wife. Abimelech had not laid hands on her, so he inquired if he would also slay a righteous nation, especially since Abraham had claimed that he and Sarah were siblings. In response, God told Abimelech that he did indeed have a blameless heart and that is why he continued to exist. However, should he not return the wife of Abraham back to him, God would surely destroy Abimelech and his entire household. Abimelech was informed that Abraham was a prophet who would pray for him.

Nicolaes Berchem, (1 October 1620 – 18 February 1683)
Abraham receives Sarah from King Abimelech, c. 1665-1670
Oil on canvas
(height x width): 106.9 x 94.9 cm
MAH Museum of Art and History. City of Geneva

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1 October 1620 – 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number of allegories and genre pieces.

He was a member of the second generation of "Dutch Italianate landscape" painters. These were artists who travelled to Italy, or aspired to, in order to soak up the romanticism of the country, bringing home sketchbooks full of drawings of classical ruins and pastoral imagery. His paintings, of which he produced an immense number,  were in great demand, as were his etchings and drawings. His landscapes, painted in the Italian style of idealized rural scenes, with hills, mountains, cliffs and trees in a golden dawn are sought after. Berchem also painted inspired and attractive human and animal figures (staffage) in works of other artists, like Allaert van Everdingen, Jan Hackaert, Gerrit Dou, Meindert Hobbema and Willem Schellinks. More on Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem

Early next morning, Abimelech informed his servants of his dream and approached Abraham inquiring as to why he had brought such great guilt upon his kingdom. Abraham stated that he thought there was no fear of God in that place, and that they might kill him for his wife. Then Abraham defended what he had said as not being a lie at all: "And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife." 

Lars  Justinen
Abraham and Sarah
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.”
I have no further description, at this time

Born near Tacoma, Washington, Lars  Justinen grew up with nature and art playing a prominent role in his life. Some of his earliest drawings and paintings were made to raise money for mission projects at his local church. His mother was a high school art teacher and his father an amateur naturalist and door-to-door religous book salesman. In 1965 he moved with his family to British Columbia, Canada and lived in Victoria, British Columbia for most of his youth. 

After spending 4 years pursuing a fine arts degree at Walla Walla University in Washington State, Lars returned to British Columbia and spent 5 years working as a gallery artist, painting landscape and wildlife paintings for solo and group exhibitions. During this time he had his first experiences working with digital media, taking his first digital illustration course in 1982 at Capilano College near Vancouver, British Columbia. From 1985 to 1991 he worked as an in-house illustrator for Pacific Press Publishing Association in Nampa, Idaho and was also actively involved in freelance projects, being represented by Jerry Leff and Associates in New York as a book and magazine illustrator. During this period he painted illustrations for national book and magazine clients and publishers like New Yorker magazine, McGraw Hill, Scholastic Books, Focus on the Family, Public Television, Pebble Beach Golf Club, and Avon Books, winning several national awards for his work in publications such as PRINT, Communication Arts, The Society of Illustrators, and Japan Creative Annual. More on Lars Justinen

Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham, and gave him gifts of sheep, oxen, and servants; and invited him to settle wherever he pleased in Abimelech's lands. Further, Abimelech gave Abraham a thousand pieces of silver to serve as Sarah's vindication before all. Abraham then prayed for Abimelech and his household, since God had stricken the women with infertility because of the taking of Sarah.


After living for some time in the land of the Philistines, Abimelech and Phicol, the chief of his troops, approached Abraham because of a dispute that resulted in a violent confrontation at a well. Abraham then reproached Abimelech due to his Philistine servant's aggressive attacks and the seizing of Abraham's well. Abimelech claimed ignorance of the incident. Then Abraham offered a pact by providing sheep and oxen to Abimelech. Further, to attest that Abraham was the one who dug the well, he also gave Abimelech seven ewes for proof. Because of this sworn oath, they called the place of this well: Beersheba. After Abimelech and Phicol headed back to Philistia, Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba and called upon "the name of the LORD, the everlasting God." 

Willem Bartsius | lot | Sotheby's:
Willem Bartsius (1612, Enkhuizen – 1657, Enkhuizen),
ABRAHAM PLEADING WITH SARAH ON BEHALF OF HAGAR
signed and dated
oil on canvas
120.8 by 89.2 cm.; 47 1/2  by 35 1/8  in.

Willem Bartsius (1612, Enkhuizen – 1657, Enkhuizen), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. According to Houbraken, who mentioned his sister as Paulus Potter's mother, his father was Paulus Bertius, the city secretary of Enkhuizen, and his mother was descended from the House of Egmont.

He became a member of the Alkmaar Guild of St. Luke in 1634 where he took on the pupil Abraham Meyndertsz, but in 1636 he moved to Amsterdam and little is known of him after 1639. He is known for both landscapes and portraits, including a schutterstuk in Alkmaar. More on Willem Bartsius

As had been prophesied in Mamre the previous year, Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham, on the first anniversary of the covenant of circumcision. Abraham was "an hundred years old", when his son whom he named Isaac was born; and he circumcised him when he was eight days old. For Sarah, the thought of giving birth and nursing a child, at such an old age, also brought her much laughter, as she declared, "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me." Isaac continued to grow and on the day he was weaned, Abraham held a great feast to honor the occasion. During the celebration, however, Sarah found Ishmael mocking; an observation that would begin to clarify the birthright of Isaac.

Adriaen van der Werff  (1659–1722)
The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, circa 1699
height: 76.5 cm (30.1 in) Edit this at Wikidata; width: 61.6 cm (24.2 in) Edit this at Wikidata
Collection
Rhode Island School of Design Museum  Blue pencil.svg wikidata:Q2148186

Adriaen van Ostade,  (born Dec. 10, 1610, Haarlem, Neth.—buried May 2, 1685, Haarlem), See above

Govaert Flinck - The Expulsion of Hagar
Govaert Flinck 
The Expulsion of Hagar
Oil on canvas
110.7 x 138.8 cm
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Govert Flinck,  (born Jan. 25, 1615, Kleve, Brandenburg [Germany]—died Feb. 2, 1660, Amsterdam, Dutch Republic [now in the Netherlands]), Baroque painter of portraits, genre, and narrative subjects, one of Rembrandt’s most accomplished followers.

Flinck first studied in Leeuwarden and later entered Rembrandt’s studio. As a painter of biblical and allegorical subjects, he at first modeled his style closely on Rembrandt’s, as, for example, in his Crucifixion (1643?). Later he developed a more florid and oratorical manner, in which he appears to have been influenced by Rubens, as in the Allegory in Memory of Prince Frederick Henry (1654). Flinck’s most successful works were portraits, and he was especially successful in his group portraits—e.g., A Goldsmith and His Family and Celebration of the Civic Guard at the Signing of the Peace of Münster (1648). More on Govaert Flinck

Ishmael was fourteen years old when Abraham's son Isaac was born to a different mother, Sarah. Sarah had finally borne her own child, even though she had passed her child bearing period. When she found Ishmael teasing Isaac, Sarah told Abraham to send both Ishmael and Hagar away. She declared that Ishmael would not share in Isaac's inheritance. 

Fritz von Uhde 
The Expulsion of Hagar, c. 1890
Oil on canvas
Private collection

Fritz von Uhde (born Friedrich Hermann Carl Uhde; May 22, 1848 – February 25, 1911) was a German painter of genre and religious subjects. His style laying between Realism and Impressionism, he was once known as "Germany's outstanding impressionist" and he became one of the first painters who introduced en plein air art in his country. More on Fritz von Uhde

MOSTAERT (c 1474 – 1555/56)
Abraham and Hagar
Oil on panel
94 x 131 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

MOSTAERT ((b. ca. 1475, Haarlem, d. 1555/56, Haarlem). Netherlandish painter. He was born in Haarlem and the influence of Geertgen tot Sint Jans can be clearly seen in his rather stiff and gangling figures. As painter to Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, he accompanied her on her travels, making portraits of her courtiers. He also painted religious works. His most remarkable painting, however, is a landscape of the West Indies (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, 1525-30). Many of his paintings were destroyed in the Great Fire of Haarlem in 1576, and little is known in detail of his career. More on MOSTAERT

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Expulsion of Hagar, c. 1719
Oil on canvas
 96 x 136 cm
I have no further description, at this time

Tiepolo's beautiful, terrified Hagar begs for mercy, but Abraham is unyielding: she must leave, and leave now. He towers over her prostrate figure, showing us clearly that he is the one with the power and she, despite her beauty and vulnerability, has lost the little influence she once had.

The background details of the painting seem curiously unsuitable for a nomadic, second millennium BC tribal scene, but they do suggest the wealth and power of Abraham, and the almost divine status of certain biblical figures in Western culture.  

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice. He was prolific, and worked not only in Italy, but also in Germany and Spain.

Giovan Battista Tiepolo, together with Giambattista Pittoni, Canaletto, Giovan Battista Piazzetta, Giuseppe Maria Crespi and Francesco Guardi forms the traditional great Old Masters of that period.

Successful from the beginning of his career, he has been described by Michael Levey as "the greatest decorative painter of eighteenth-century Europe, as well as its most able craftsman. More on Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Fil:Pieter Pietersz. Lastman 001.jpg
Pieter Lastman (1583–1633)
Farewell Hagar, c. 1612
Oil on Canvas
49 × 71 cm
Hamburger Kunsthalle

A richly dressed Abraham places his hand on the head of his soon-to-be abandoned son Ishmael - a hollow gesture in the circumstances. Hagar's look is full of silent reproach. More on this painting

Pieter Lastman,  (born 1583, Amsterdam—buried April 4, 1633, Amsterdam, Neth.), See above

GUERCINO, (b. 1591, Cento, d. 1666, Bologna)
Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael, c. 1657
Oil on canvas
115 x 154 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

GUERCINO, (b. 1591, Cento, d. 1666, Bologna) was one of the most interesting personalities in seventeenth-century Bolognese art, and his activity in Rome made him an important influence on all Italian painting. More than from Venice and Correggio, his work derives from Dosso Dossi and the school of Ferrara. This painting represents one of the high points of Guercino's mature style. Its restoration by the Brera's laboratory has revealed the original colours and eliminated the yellowish patina that obfuscated and partially hid the composition.

The painting is built up on a measured circular rhythm, and the prominent gestures of the figures are emphasized almost to the point of theatricality. Little Ishmael is crying and leaning his head against Hagar. As she consoles him and holds out a handkerchief, she turns toward Abraham, who stands stern and still, making a gesture of repudiation. Sarah, seen from behind, appears to be moving away from the scene. The low-keyed colour helps avoid any rhetorical suggestion, while the slow rhythm of the composition creates a sense of inevitability.

The city of Cento commissioned this painting, which was then presented to the Cardinal Legate of Ferrara, Lorenzo Imperiali. More on this painting

Guercino (a nickname meaning "the squinter", originally Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), Italian painter of the Bolognese school. He was self-taught but developed precociously. Despite the fact that he spent much of his life in Cento, a small provincial town between Bologna and Ferrara, he managed to become one of the major artists of his day. He was early inspired by the classical reforms of Lodovico Carracci but his pictures were full of movement and intense feeling.

In 1621 Pope Gregory XV summoned him to Rome where he stayed until 1623, trying to balance his own dynamic temperament with the rarefied manner of the classical school. The works he produced in Rome were perhaps his most original paintings. After Gregory's death in 1623, he went back to Emilia, his energy gradually seemed to dissipate and his painting became more controlled. On the death of Guido Reni (1642) he moved to Bologna where the dominant climate was coldly classical. Altering his art to suit this atmosphere, Guercino became the leader of its academic art world.  More on Guercino

File: Giovanni Soens Abraham dismisses Ismael.jpg
Attributed to Jan Soens (fl. circa 1573–1611)
Abraham dismisses his son Ishmael., c. 16th century or 17th century
Oil on copper
55 x 44 cm.
Private collection

Jan Soens (c. 1547 – c. 1611), also known as Giovanni Sons, was a Dutch painter from 's-Hertogenbosch. He moved to Antwerp to live with a schoolmaster named Jacob Boon, whereupon he taught himself the rudiments of painting. After becoming proficient, he moved in with the painter Gillis Mostaert, and assisted him creating landscape paintings in the manner of Gillis' twin brother Frans Mostaert. A few of these early landscapes could be seen in Amsterdam at the home of Hendrick Louwersz Spieghel at the time Karel van Mander was writing in 1604. Soens and he had met during Karel van Mander's trip to Italy, where Soens made small pieces on copper for the Pope in Rome.

According to the RKD he was in Rome from 1573 and in Parma from 1575. He was particularly active from 1575 with the Farnese in Rome, and in Piacenza and Parma in the early seventeenth century. He painted history works, such as the mannerist Jupiter and Antiope, as well as religious paintings reflecting the Council of Trent's decrees on art and Counter Reformation ideals of clearly represented piety. He died in Parma between 1611 and 1614. More on Jan Soens

Johann Friedrich Overbeck (German Painter, 1789-1869)
Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael, 1841
Oil on canvas
83.82 cm x 101.60 cm (33 x 40 in.)
Altonaer Museum, Norddeutsches Landesmuseum, Hamburg


Johann Friedrich Overbeck,  (born July 3, 1789, Imperial Free City of Lübeck—died Nov. 12, 1869, Rome), Romantic painter of Christian religious subjects, who was leader of a group of German artists known as the Nazarenes, or Lucas Brotherhood (Lukasbund).

In 1806 Overbeck entered the Academy of Vienna, where, disappointed in the academic approach to teaching, he and Franz Pforr in 1809 founded the Lucas Brotherhood. They sought to revive the medieval artists’ guilds and to renew the arts through Christian faith (in 1813 Overbeck joined the Roman Catholic Church). For artistic inspiration they turned to Albrecht Dürer and to Italian Renaissance art, particularly the works of Perugino and early Raphael.

In 1810 the Lucas Brotherhood went to Rome. Their style was characterized by precise outlines; clear, bright colours; and an emphasis on Christian symbolism. Communally, the brotherhood executed the frescoes of “Joseph Sold by His Brethren” at the Casa Bartholdy (1816) and the interior pavilion (1817–29) at the Villa Massimo in Rome. In the Portiuncula Chapel at Assisi, Overbeck painted “Rose Miracle of St. Francis” (1829), usually considered his major work.

As he advanced in years, Overbeck’s painting became pallid and stereotyped. Yet these late works greatly influenced Christian devotional art of the 19th century and the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His more vital early pictures and drawings, however, were rediscovered and appreciated early in the 20th century. More on Johann Friedrich Overbeck

File:Jan Victors 001.jpg
Jan Victors (1619-1676)
Banishment of Hagar, c. 1635
Oil on Canvas
131 × 157.5 cm (51.6 × 62 in)
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest)

Sources give the year as 1635, but this would make Victors' age only 16 at the time; it seems a very accomplished work for such a young artist

Abraham expels Hagar and her son from his home, but notice that she is moving towards light, and away from darkness - this, despite the apparent hopelessness of her situation. Sarah stands at the doorway, a mean-spirited gleam in her eyes.

Victors painted biblical scenes for Calvinist (Protestant) patrons, pictures infused with his own religious beliefs and designed to encourage religious belief and enquiry. He used rich colors and theatrical settings to engage the interest of viewers and lead them towards awareness of God's continuing constancy and protection. After the mid-1650's, Victors gave up painting to devote himself to caring for the sick, and he died in the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) in 1676. More on this painting

Jan Victors or Fictor (bapt. June 13, 1619 – December 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter that focused mainly on painting subject from the Bible. He was born in Amsterdam and was known in Haarlem on a taxation catalog in 1722 as a student of Rembrandt van Rijn. Though it is not certain that he worked for Rembrandt, it is clear from his Young girl at a window that he had looked carefully at Rembrandt's paintings. He was only twenty when he painted this scene, and the look of expectation on the girl's face shows a remarkable study of character. Like many painters in Amsterdam after the rampjaar of 1672, he fell onto bad times and took a position as ziekentrooster, a combi-job as professional nurse and cleric, with the Dutch East India Company in 1676. He died soon after arrival in Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies.

He was a conscientious member of the Reformed Church, and for this reason he avoided creating art which depicts Christ, angels, or nudity. More on Jan Victors or Fictor


File:Johann Conrad Seekatz 004.jpg
Johann Conrad Seekatz (1719–1768)
Repudiation of Hagar, c. 1760-1765
Oil on panel
Hermitage Museum

Hand-on-hip in an I-mean-business pose, Abraham points outward, signaling that Hagar and his own son Ishmael must leave. Their apparently hopeless plight is emphasized by their bare feet and ragged clothing, contrasting with his own well-shod feet.

Seekatz was a wealthy and influential German artist, Court painter in Darmstadt and friend of Germany's most famous writer, Goethe. Nevertheless, he often painted peasant life and the reality of a farmers' life. Here he uses this type of setting for a painting of Hagar, Abraham and Ishmael, acknowledging their comparatively humble origins. More on this painting

Johann Conrad Seekatz, (4. September 1719 in Grünstadt; 25. August 1768 in Darmstadt) was a German painter, son of the Worms court painter Johann Martin Seekatz (1680-1729) and the Juliana Magdalena Kuhlmann (about 1686-1772) He painted corporate and military scenes, genre scenes of peasant life and landscapes with biblical Masked following the Dutchman, particularly at Adriaen Brouwer.

Johann Conrad Seekatz worked with his older brother Johann Ludwig Seekatz taught (1711-1783). They both took over in 1747 anddecorated the organ loft in the Bergkirche Osthofen. Johann 's showed his greater talent which exceeded those of the father and the elder brother clearly. Soon they parted ways and the much more gifted Johann Conrad became an important South German artists of the Baroque period. The paintings of the brothers Seekatz in the Bergkirche Osthofen were for decades in a very bad condition and in 2003 extensively restored under the aegis of the then priest John Volker Fey. 

In 1753 Johann Conrad Seekatz worked as a court painter in Darmstadt. His repertoire included small-scale religious, mythological and historical paintings. But Seekatz also painted realistic genre paintings from the bourgeois milieu and landscapes in Dutch Art. More on Johann Conrad Seekatz

Abraham was greatly distressed by his wife's words and sought the advice of his God. God told Abraham not to be distressed but to do as his wife commanded. God reassured Abraham that "in Isaac shall seed be called to thee."  He also said that Ishmael would make a nation, "because he is thy seed". 

Ishmael the Archer' Painter:  James Tissot:
Jean-Charles Cazin (1840–1901)
Hagar and Ismael, before 1880
Oil on canvas
252 × 202 cm (99.2 × 79.5 in)
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours

Usually Cazin chose the mysterious twilight hours for the time of his pictures. He comes into the daylight in this picture, but the same gentle melancholy seems to brood over his canvas, the quietness of the arid waste of desert replacing the silent spaces of the dusk, and the parching, brazen sun suggesting the diffused brilliance of the moonshine. 

He loved simplicity in his landscapes and in his subjects, and when he associated them with human feelings, with which the Bible stories or the old legends inspired him, he made his scenes harmonise with their spirit in a very subtle manner. This touch of art, as one may describe it, is well shown in the present picture, where the general suggestion of loneliness and hopelessness accords well the despair of Hagar. More on this painting

Jean Charles Cazin (May 25, 1840 – March 17, 1901) was a French landscape painter and ceramicist. He was born at Samer, Pas-de-Calais. After studying in France, he went to England, where he was strongly influenced by the pre-Raphaelite movement. His chief earlier pictures have a religious interest, shown in such examples as The Flight into Egypt (1877), or Hagar and Ishmael (1880 gave him a wide repute, and made him the leader of a new school of idealistic subject-painting in France.

He was made an officer of the Legion of Honour in 1889. His charming and poetical treatment of landscape is the feature in his tonalism painting which in later years has given them an increasing value among connoisseurs. His wife, Marie Cazin (1844–1924), who was his pupil and exhibited her first picture at the Salon in 1876, the same year in which Cazin himself made his debut there, was also a well-known artist and sculptor. More on Jean Charles Cazin

Fil:Navez Agar et Ismaël.jpg
François-Joseph Navez (1787-1869)
Hagar has Ishmael in the desert, c. 1920
Oil on Canvas
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

François-Joseph Navez (Charleroi, 1787 – Brussels, 1869) was a Belgian neo-classical painter. Joseph Navez was a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, he spent five years in Italy between 1817 and 1822. Between 1835 and 1862 he was the director of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

He was a very successful portrait painter. He also painted many mythological and historic subjects. The orientalist painter Jean-François Portaels was his pupil (and son-in-law). Jean Carolus, the Belgian painter of genre scenes and interiors, was a protege of François-Joseph Navez. More on François-Joseph Navez

Charles Lock Eastlake
Hagar and Ishmael, c. 1830
Oil on panel
58.4 x 50.8 cm
Royal Academy of Arts

The water is gone, and she and the boy are exhausted, near to death. In this seemingly hopeless situation, Hagar looks heavenwards for help.

This work has the sentimentality and lack of vigor that characterized many late Georgian/early Victorian paintings, particularly biblical scenes set in imagined Mediterranean landscapes. Admittedly, Eastlake spent much of his life in Europe and eventually died in Pisa, but there is remarkably little to excite the viewer of this picture. More on this painting

Charles Lock Eastlake, (b Plymouth, 17 Nov. 1793; d Pisa, 24 Dec. 1865), was an English painter, art historian, and administrator. He studied under Haydon and achieved early fame with his Napoleon on Board the Bellerophon (1815, Nat. Maritime Mus., London), made from sketches when he witnessed Napoleon on board ship (in Eastlake's native Plymouth) en route to exile in St Helena. Using the proceeds from the sale of this work he lived in Rome 1816–30, painting picturesque scenes of the Roman Campagna, often peopled by banditti, that became very popular in Britain. After his return to England, however, he turned increasingly to administration and achieved a remarkable record as a public servant. Most notably he was president of the Royal Academy from 1850 and director of the National Gallery from 1855, continuing in both posts until his death. He had an enormous impact at the gallery, bringing strong management to an institution that had been drifting into chaos, and making numerous major purchases, especially of early Italian paintings: ‘No Englishman of his time knew more about art…Setting a brilliant example of intellectual strength and honourable service, he made the National Gallery great’ (Oxford DNB). Among his writings are Materials for a History of Oil Painting (1847), a pioneering work, and a translation of Goethe's Theory of Colours (1840). His wife, Elizabeth, née Rigby (1809–93), was a figure in her own right in the literary–artistic world of the day. She wrote several books on art and also translated Gustav Waagen's Treasures of Art in Great Britain (1854). Eastlake's nephew, Charles Locke Eastlake (1836–1906), was keeper of the National Gallery, 1878–98, and published several works on art and decoration, the best known of which was Hints on Household Taste (1868), in which he advocated quality of materials and workmanship. It was highly influential in England and even more so in America, although so-called ‘Eastlake furniture’ often has little to do with his ideas. More on Charles Lock Eastlake

Early the next morning, Abraham brought Hagar and Ishmael out together. He gave her bread and water and sent them away. The two wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba until her bottle of water was completely consumed. In a moment of despair, she burst into tears. 

Jean-François Millet (French, 1814-1875) 
Hagar and Ishmael 
oil on panel 
6¾ x 10 in. (17 x 25.4 cm.) 
Private collection

Jean-François Millet painted Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert in 1847-48, as he searched for biblical and historical themes that would support his interest in realistic figure painting and contemporary social problems. At the same time as he created this image of the Old Testament slave girl and her child banished into the wilderness, Millet was also painting abandoned mothers sheltering children along modern highways.

Millet took up the Hagar theme for his first government commission (from the short-lived republican regime of 1848); and it is likely this small panel served as the sketch Millet would have submitted in support of his application. The ultimate version of the subject (The Hague, Museum Mesdag, fig. 1) separates the figures of Hagar and her son. More on this painting

Jean-François Millet,  (born October 4, 1814, Gruchy, near Gréville, France—died January 20, 1875, Barbizon), French painter renowned for his peasant subjects.

Millet spent his youth working on the land, but by the age of 19 he was studying art in Cherbourg. In 1837 he arrived in Paris and eventually enrolled in the studio of Paul Delaroche, where he seems to have remained until 1839.

After the rejection of one of his entries for the Salon of 1840, Millet returned to Cherbourg, where he remained during most of 1841, painting portraits. He achieved his first success in 1844 with The Milkmaid and a large pastel, The Riding Lesson, that has a sensual character typical of a large part of his production during the 1840s.

The peasant subjects, which from the early 1850s were to be Millet’s principal concern, made their first important appearance at the Salon of 1848 with The Winnower, later destroyed by fire. In 1849, after a period of great hardship, Millet left Paris to settle in Barbizon, a small hamlet in the forest of Fontainebleau. He continued to exhibit paintings of peasants, and, as a result, periodically faced the charge of being a socialist. Letters of the period defending Millet’s position underline the fundamentally classical nature of his approach to painting. More on Jean-François Millet

Marc Chagall, (1887 - 1985)
Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert, c.  1960
Lithograph
13.85" x 10.14"
This is the original lithograph from Chagall's Bible II series, as referenced in Mourlots catalogue raisonné.

Hagar tries to envelop Ishmael in her arms, nursing him as he dies - not strictly as described in the Bible, but a touching image all the same. Help is at hand - the Angel seems almost to be running towards them, calling out to them not to despair. God is at hand.

This lithograph is from the series of etchings of incidents in the Bible, begun by Chagall in the late 1920's and completed in 1956. Chagall was Russian, and lived most of his life in France. More on this work

Marc Chagall, (1887 - 1985)Marc Chagall was born in Belarus in 1877 and developed an early interest in art. After studying painting, in 1907 he left Russia for Paris, where he lived in an artist colony on the city’s outskirts. Fusing his own personal, dreamlike imagery with hints of the fauvism and cubism popular in France at the time, Chagall created his most lasting work—including I and the Village (1911)—some of which would be featured in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions. After returning to Vitebsk for a visit in 1914, the outbreak of WWI trapped Chagall in Russia. He returned to France in 1923 but was forced to flee the country and Nazi persecution during WWII. Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985.  More on Marc Chagall

Camille Corot (French, Paris 1796–1875 Paris )
Hagar in the Wilderness, c. 1835
Oil on canvas
71 x 106 1/2 in. (180.3 x 270.5 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The two figures have sought relief from the sun and seem to be positioned in the shade of a nearby rock formation, but the boy Ishmael has collapsed, and will soon be dead. Hagar appeals to God, now her only possible source of help, and out of her sightline an angel has already appeared, winging towards the desperate mother.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875) has positioned Hagar and Ishmael in darkness, but the Angel hovers in a sky full of the crisp, pure light that Corot was famous for. He loved Nature and natural light, and in this way was a precursor of the Impressionists.  Corot was not especially famous during his lifetime, but he had an independent income and could do what he chose. He was well-known for his generosity to other painters, and was altogether A Good Man. More on Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Giovanni Lanfranco (1582–1647)
Hagar in the Wilderness, c. first half of 17th century
Oil on canvas
Height: 138 cm (54.3 in). Width: 159 cm (62.6 in).
Louvre Museum

Hagar has been crying, but is startled by the angel's hand on her shoulder. Ishmael is behind her, clinging like a small frightened animal. Both of them are listening to the angel, who is pointing to a source of water - something that will save their lives. Dark colors on the left of the canvas are the past; light pours from the angel onto Hagar, and the angel's hand points to a brighter future at the right of the canvas.

Langranco was one of the first painters of the Baroque style in Rome, and was much admired as a 'progressive'. He was influenced by Tintoretto, and used powerful, almost monumental figures, luxuriously colored, to make an impact and focus the viewer on a central moment in the story. More on this painting

Giovanni Lanfranco (26 January 1582 – 30 November 1647) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.He was born in Parma, and was placed as a page in the household of Count Orazio Scotti. His talent for drawing allowed him to begin an apprenticeship with the Bolognese artist Agostino Carracci. When Agostino died in 1602, he moved to Annibale's large and prominent Roman workshop, which was then involved in working on the Galleria Farnese in the Palazzo Farnese gallery.

By 1605, Lanfranco was obtaining some independent commissions; for example, he contributed paintings to the Camerino degli Eremiti in the Palazzetto Farnese (also known as Casino della Morte), once a low building on the Via Giulia. In 1609, Lanfranco returned to his native Parma for two years. There, he met Bartolomeo Schedoni and painted the altarpiece for the Ognissanti church. Lanfranco also produced paintings and altarpieces in Orvieto, Vallerano, Leonessa and Fermo.

He returned to Rome in 1612.  

Lanfranco was fairly eclectic in terms of style but preferred a visionary, theatrical approach suitable for the ceiling paintings gaining currency in the early 17th century. His works suggest some influence from the late work of Ludovico Carracci, and possibly from Caravaggio.

From 1634 to 1646, Lanfranco began decorating the dome and pendentives of the Jesuit church of the Gesù Nuovo in Naples in 1634-1637. In 1637-1638. His  works would invigorate the efforts of the grand manner Napolitan painters of the second half of the 17th century: He died in Rome in 1647, where his last work was apse of San Carlo ai Catinari. More on Giovanni Lanfranco

Tiepolo Giovanni Battista
Hagar, Ishmael and the angel circa 1732
Oil on canvas
height: 140 cm (55.1 in); width: 120 cm (47.2 in)
Scuola di San Rocco (Venice)

This is an aristocratic Hagar now robbed of almost all she had. But her son, her most valued possession, remains. Her elegant hand points to the boy and seems to ask 'Why? How could this have happened to one so innocent?' The angel, with its foot outstretched behind it, has no answer, but points to the water that will save the child.

Tiepolo had a somewhat melancholic style, and was drawn to strong contrasts of light and shade, or chiaroscuro. He used this style, coupled with a flair for the dramatic, in this painting of Hagar and Ishmael. Her gracefully arching neck and upturned face, the pallor of the little body lying beside her, the vigor of the angel, the interplay of light and darkness - these qualities combine to make a master piece. More on this painting

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), See above

Guercino or Il Guercino, 1591-1666
The Angel Appearing to Hagar and Ishmael, c. 1652-1653 
Oil on canvas 
193x229cm
National Gallery

Hagar and Ishmael are dying, but somehow still manage to drape themselves in graceful poses. The angel, too, seems remarkably relaxed about the whole matter. Not an entirely convincing depiction of this harrowing moment in Hagar's life. But nice clothes.

This is a beautiful, if not entirely convincing, painting. The drapery is sumptuous, the interplay of brilliant light and deep shadow is dramatic, and the overall impression is is of grace, beauty and harmony - elements in vogue at the time. More on this painting

Italian Baroque Era Painter, 1591-1666 best known as Guercino or Il Guercino, was an Italian Baroque painter from the region of Emilia, and active in Rome and Bologna. Guercino is Italian for squinter, a nickname that was given to him because he was cross-eyed.  Guercino was born at Cento, a village between Bologna and Ferrara. By the age of 17 he was associated with Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the Bolognese School. By 1615 he moved to Bologna, where his work earned the praise of an elder Ludovico Carracci. He painted two large canvases, Elijah Fed by Ravens and Samson Seized by Philistines, in what appears to be a stark naturalist Caravaggesque style . His first style, he often claimed, was influenced by a canvas of Carracci in Cento. Some of his later pieces approach rather to the manner of his great contemporary Guido Reni, and are painted with more lightness and clearness. Guercino was esteemed very highly in his lifetime. He was then recommended by Marchese Enzo Bentivoglio to the Bolognese Ludovisi Pope, Pope Gregory XV. His two years (1621-23) spent in Rome were very productive. From this stay date his frescoes of Aurora at the casino of the Villa Ludovisi and the ceiling in San Crisogono (1622) of San Chrysogonus in Glory; his portrait of Pope Gregory (now in the Getty Museum, and, what is considered his masterpiece, The Burial of Saint Petronilla or St. Petronilla Altarpiece, for the Vatican (now in the Museo Capitolini). The Franciscan order of Reggio in 1655 paid him 300 ducats for the altarpiece of Saint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Madonna and Child (now in Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City). The Corsini also paid him 300 ducats for the Flagellation of Christ painted in 1657. More on Giovanni Francesco Barberi 

Unknown
The angel shows Hagar and Ishmael the way to saving fountains,  Italy, 17th century
Oil on canvas
75 x 100 cm.
Private collection

After God heard the boy's voice, an angel of God confirmed to Hagar that he would become a great nation. A well of water then appeared so that it saved their lives. 

Pompeo Batoni,  (Jan. 25, 1708 -Feb. 4, 1787)
The Appearance of the Angel to Hagar in the Desert
Oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome, Italy.

Pompeo Girolamo Batoni,  Batoni also spelled Battoni    (born Jan. 25, 1708, Lucca, Tuscany [Italy]—died Feb. 4, 1787, Rome), Italian painter, who in his own time was ranked with Anton Raphael Mengs as a painter of historical subjects. Probably his portraits are now better known, as he invented the type of “grand tourist” portrait, very popular among the English, which shows the sitter at his ease among the ruins of antiquity. Batoni first gained fame as a painter of florid and elaborate mythological allegories. From the 1750s until his death, however, he was the preeminent portraitist in Rome. His smoothly finished ceremonial portraits of important personages combined elements of the Rococo, Bolognese classicism, and emergent Neoclassicism. More on Pompeo Batoni

KAREL DUJARDIN
Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness, c. 1662
Oil on canvas
187 x 143 cm
Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

Hagar receives two things she needs from the Angel: water, and instructions for her future. Dujardin has charmingly provided not one, but two, angels, the second being the Guardian Angel whose task it is to look after the child Ishmael. Sensible Ishmael is concentrating on drinking water from the saucer his mother holds, rather than looking at the Guardian Angel at his shoulder. First things first. The Angel speaking to Hagar is, traditionally, the Archangel Michael.

Dujardin was a highly skilled Dutch Italianate painter of religious and allegorical pictures. In the composition of this painting: the figures fall into a triangular shape balanced by the wing and the wing-like pointing arm of the Angel; the colors are sumptuous but muted; the faces have an other-worldly quality, but are at the same time sympathetic. There is an overall harmony and balance very few painters achieve. More on this painting

Karel Dujardin (September 27, 1622 – November 20, 1678) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Although he did a few portraits and a few history paintings of religious subjects, most of his work is small Italianate landscape scenes with animals and peasants, and other genre scenes. Dujardin spent two extended periods, at the beginning and end of his career, in Italy, and most of his paintings and landscape etchings have an Italian or Italianate setting. More on Karel Dujardin


Marshall Claxton, (12 May 1811 – 28 July 1881) 
Hagar and Ishmael at the Well, c. 1842
Oil on canvas, 
147.3 x 177.8 cm
York Museums Trust

Marshall Claxton (12 May 1811 – 28 July 1881) was an English subject, genre, landscape and portrait painter. Claxton was born in Bolton, Lancashire. He studied under John Jackson, R.A., and at the Royal Academy school where he enrolled on 26 April 1831.

He had his first picture in the Royal Academy in 1832, a portrait of his father. In subsequent years about 30 of his pictures were shown at Academy exhibitions. In 1834 he was awarded the first medal in the painting school, and obtained the gold medal of the Society of Arts in 1835 for his portrait of Sir Astley Cooper. From 1837 to 1842 he worked in Italy and then returned to London, gaining a prize of £100 for his "Alfred the Great in the Camp of the Danes".

In 1850 Claxton went to Sydney, Australia, with a large collection of pictures, but had little success in selling them. While in Sydney he painted a large picture, "Suffer little children to come unto me", a commission from the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. This was described in Household Words as 'the first important picture' painted in Australia.


In September 1854 Claxton left Sydney for Calcutta, where he sold several of his pictures. He returned to England in 1858 via Egypt, and died in London after a long illness on 28 July 1881. More on Marshall Claxton

As the boy grew, he became a skilled archer living in the wilderness of Paran. Eventually his mother found a wife for Ishmael from her home country, the land of Egypt. 


Charles Lock Eastlake
Hagar Offering Water to Her Son, Ishmael, in the Desert, c. 1842
Oil on canvas
71 x 94 cm
National Trust

Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (17 November 1793 – 24 December 1865) was an English painter, gallery director, collector and writer of the early 19th century. He was born in Plymouth, and educated at local grammar schools in Plymouth and, briefly, at Charterhouse (then still in London).He was committed to becoming a painter, and in 1809 he became the first pupil of Benjamin Haydon and a student at the Royal Academy schools in London — where he later exhibited.

However his first exhibited work was shown at the British Institution in 1815, a year in which he also visited Paris and studied works in the Louvre (then known as the Musée Napoléon). His first notable success was a painting Napoleon on Board the Bellerophon in Plymouth Sound (1815; now in the National Maritime Museum, London). Like many other people at the time, Eastlake had hired a boat to take him to the ship on which Napoleon was held captive in Plymouth harbour. He sketched him from the boat.

Eastlake, the painter and gallery inspector, furnished his countrymen, in 1840, with such an excellent translation of Goethe's theory of color that it is a perfect reproduction of the original and reads more easily; in fact, it is understood more easily than the original.

Having already advised the National Gallery, London on acquisitions, he was appointed the Gallery's first Keeper in 1843, a post he later resigned to resume writing and painting. In 1845, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician.

From 1850–1865, he was the second president of the Birmingham Society of Artists. Elected President of the Royal Academy and knighted in 1850, he became a notable figure in the British art establishment, being appointed the first President of the Photographic Society in 1853 and, in 1855, the first Director of the National Gallery. His directorship was marred by the signal failure of the National Gallery to fulfil the terms of the bequest of J.M.W.Turner, his erstwhile friend. Cambridge University awarded him an honorary degree in 1864. More on Sir Charles Lock Eastlake

James Tissot
Ishmael the Archer, c. 1896
Watercolour
Jewish Museum New York


The image of Ishmael as an archer is hardly ever represented in Western art, but it draws on a verse about the continuing life of Hagar. She lived with her son in the wilderness of Paran, and he became an expert archer.

he location of the wilderness of Paran is unknown, but it may have been the Negev desert, or the area directly north of the Gulf of Aqaba. Tissot lived for a time in Palestine, researching the landscape and people for a series on the Old Testament. His paintings and drawings are more accurate and realistic than most 19th century biblical art. More on this painting

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902), See above

At some point in Isaac's youth, Abraham was commanded by God to offer his son up as a sacrifice in the land of Moriah. 

Anthony van Dyck
Abraham and Isaac, c.1617
oil on canvas
19 x 178 cm
Národni Galerie, Prague, Czech Republic

Sir Anthony van Dyck, ( 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England, after enjoying great success in Italy and Flanders. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next 150 years. He also painted biblical and mythological subjects, displayed outstanding facility as a draughtsman, and was an important innovator in watercolour and etching. The Van Dyke beard is named after him. More Sir Anthony van Dyck

The patriarch traveled three days until he came to the mount that God told him of. He commanded the servants to remain while he and Isaac proceeded alone into the mount. Isaac carried the wood upon which he would be sacrificed. Along the way, Isaac asked his father where the animal for the burnt offering was, to which Abraham replied "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering". 

File:El sacrificio de Isaac (Domenichino).jpg
Domenichino (1581–1641)
The Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1627 - 1628
oil on canvas
147 × 140 cm (57.9 × 55.1 in)
Prado Museum

Domenico Zampieri (or Domenichino; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641) was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School, or Carracci School, of painters. He spent half his life battling against the increasingly fashionable exuberant Baroque style of Giovanni Lanfranco and Pietro da Cortona. When a friend encouraged him to accommodate others' taste, he replied, "I work for myself alone and for the perfection of Art." Domenichino's sensibility, subtle composition, and delicate color heavily influenced Nicolas Poussin. The most classical Bolognese painter of his era, Domenichino sought the ideal form and grandeur known as disegno. 

After studying with a Flemish artist, Domenichino switched to the Carracci academy's classical instruction, then assisted Lodovico Carracci. In 1602 he joined Annibale Carracci and his classmates Guido Reni and Lanfranco, his detested rival, working on the Farnese Palace's ceiling murals. Domenichino painted many of the landscapes, ordering and improving on nature. By 1614 he was Rome's leading painter. He also made easel pictures, sometimes painting on copper to achieve a polished finish. In 1621 he began working as architect for Pope Gregory XV, creating frescoes with a more emotional Baroque style. 

In 1631, with his popularity in Rome waning, Domenichino traveled to Naples to take over Guido Reni's commission to decorate a chapel in the Naples Cathedral. This was a potentially dangerous project: other non-Neapolitan artists had refused or abandoned this commission after jealous local artists threatened their lives and killed a servant of Reni's. In 1641 Domenichino died with the project unfinished, and Lanfranco succeeded him. More on Domenichino

File:Rembrandt Abraham en Isaac, 1634.jpg
Rembrandt (1606–1669)
Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1635
oil on canvas
Height: 193 cm (76 in). Width: 132 cm (52 in).
Hermitage Museum

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), See above

Giacomo Piazzetta, (1682 - 1754)
Sacrifice of Isaac, circa 1715
Oil on Canvas
201.2 × 133.4 cm
 The National Gallery

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, (Giacomo Piazzetta) (1682 - 1754) Italian Artist. Giovanni Battista Piazzetta "did not care greatly for honors and neither for his own interest. He lived in love with his art," wrote his publisher. Piazzetta established himself by creating art utterly different from that of his Venetian contemporaries. Instead of spontaneous improvisation, intense color palettes, and decorative effects--often in the popular fresco medium--Piazzetta worked slowly in almost monochromatic oils, creating religious canvases and enigmatic genre pictures. "He is a snail," said a Swedish visitor. 

His sculptor father probably introduced Piazzetta to art. Study with Giuseppe Maria Crespi in Bologna likely ignited his fascination with somber, dramatic effects and his interest in genre painting. Piazzetta emulated Crespi by portraying common people. By the 1740s he owned an active studio concentrating on church commissions and genre scenes.

Piazzetta's renowned drawings of half-length figures and heads documented the people of Venice. Traditionally, Venetian painters did not consider drawings as independent works of art, but Piazzetta created a new art form, giving drawing a status equal to painting in importance and quality. After being appointed director of the newly founded academy Scuola di Nudo (School of the Nude) in 1750, Piazzetta devoted himself to teaching. More on Giovanni Battista Piazzetta

The Sacrifice of Isaac - Jacob Jordaens
Jacob Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678)
Sacrifice of Isaac, circa 1603
Oil on Canvas
24.2 x 15.5 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy


Jacob Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading Flemish Baroque painter of his day. Unlike those contemporaries he never travelled abroad to study Italian painting, and his career is marked by an indifference to their intellectual and courtly aspirations. In fact, except for a few short trips to locations in the Low Countries, he remained in Antwerp his entire life. As well as being a successful painter, he was a prominent designer of tapestries. Like Rubens, Jordaens painted altarpieces, mythological, and allegorical scenes, and after 1640—the year Rubens died—he was the most important painter in Antwerp for large-scale commissions and the status of his patrons increased in general. However, he is best known today for his numerous large genre scenes based on proverbs in the manner of his contemporary Jan Brueghel the Elder, depicting The King Drinks and As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young. Jordaens' main artistic influences, besides Rubens and the Brueghel family, were northern Italian painters such as Jacopo Bassano, Paolo Veronese, and Caravaggio. More on Jacob Jordaens

File:Sacrifice of Isaac-Caravaggio (Uffizi).jpg
Caravaggio (1571–1610)
Sacrifice of Isaac, circa 1603
oil on canvas
Height: 104 cm (40.9 in). Width: 135 cm (53.1 in).
Uffizi Gallery

Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).

He gained attention in the art scene of Rome in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death sentence pronounced against him by the Pope after killing a young man, possibly unintentionally, on May 29, 1606. He fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon.

Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. More on Caravaggio

Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, he was interrupted by "the angel of the LORD", and he saw behind him a "ram caught in a thicket by his horns", which he sacrificed instead of his son. 

Marc Chagall, (1887 - 1985)
The sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1966
Oil on Canvasil
230 x 235 cm
Gallery: Musée national Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice, France

Marc Chagall, (1887 - 1985), See above

File:Adi Holzer Werksverzeichnis 835 Abrahams Opfer.jpg
Adi Holzer
The Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1997
Hand-colored etching
Height: 490 mm (19.29 in). Width: 390 mm (15.35 in)

The Book of Genesis does not tell the age of Isaac at the time. The Talmudic sages teach that Isaac was thirty-seven, likely based on the next biblical story, which is of Sarah's death at 127, being 90 when Isaac was born.

The event occurred at "the mount of the LORD". (The hill on which Solomon was said to later build the Temple, now believed to be the Temple Mount in Jerusalem).

The majority of Jewish religious commentators argue that God was testing Abraham to see if he would actually kill his own son, as a test of his loyalty. However, a number of Jewish Biblical commentators from the medieval era, and many in the modern era, read the text in different ways. (Child sacrifice, at that time, was actually "rife among the Semitic peoples,"  "in that age, it was astounding that Abraham's God should have interposed to prevent the sacrifice, not that He should have asked for it.")

In some later Jewish writings, the theology of a "divine test" is rejected, and the sacrifice of Isaac is interpreted as a "punishment" for Abraham's earlier "mistreatment" of Ishmael, his elder son, whom he expelled from his household at the request of his wife, Sarah. 

Adi Holzer (21st April 1936 in Stockerau in Vienna in Lower Austria) is an Austrian visual artist, illustrator, draftsman, painter, graphic artist, glass painter and sculptor of bronze sculptures and glass sculptures. He works alternately in his studios in Værløse in Denmark and Winklern in Austria. In Austria, he is a member of the Carinthian Art Association. More on Adi Holzer

File:Abraham and Isaac, 19th century.jpg
Unknown
Abraham and Ismail, c. 19th century
oil on canvas
Height: 138.1 cm (54.4 in). Width: 75.6 cm (29.8 in).
Brooklyn Museum

The Quran states that when Abraham asked for a righteous son, God granted him a son possessing forbearance. The son is not however named directly in the Quran. When the son was able to walk and work with him, Abraham saw a vision about sacrificing his son. When he told his son about it, his son agreed to fulfill the command of God in the vision. When they both had submitted their will to God and were ready for the sacrifice, God told Abraham he had fulfilled the vision, and provided him with a ram to sacrifice instead. God promised to reward Abraham. The next two verses state God also granted Abraham the righteous son Isaac, and promised more rewards.

Muslim scholars have endorsed the belief that it was the first-born son Ismail, not Isaac, who was asked to be sacrificed in the vision, and that the second son Isaac was born later as one of the rewards for Abraham's fulfillment of his vision. More on this painting

Eid al-Adha, "Festival of the Sacrifice", is the second of two religious holidays celebrated by Muslims worldwide each year. It honors the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son, as an act of submission to God's command, before God then intervened, through his angel Jibra'il and informs him that his sacrifice has already been accepted. The meat from the sacrificed animal is preferred to be divided into three parts. The family retains one third of the share; another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the remaining third is given to the poor and needy. More on Eid al-Adha


From the 14th century Icelandic manuscript
From the 14th century Icelandic manuscript

Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac. From a 14th century English Missal

A missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year

For his obedience he received another promise of numerous descendants and abundant prosperity. After this event, Abraham went to Beersheba. 

Abraham Walks Beside The Body Of Sarah Into A Cave Tomb
Tom Lovell (1909 – 1997)
Abraham Walks Beside The Body Of Sarah Into A Cave Tomb

Later years Sarah died, and Abraham buried her in the Cave of the Patriarchs (the "cave of Machpelah"), near Hebron which he had purchased along with the adjoining field from Ephron the Hittite.  After the death of Sarah, Abraham took another wife, a concubine named Keturah, by whom he had six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Abraham lived 175 years, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by his sons Isaac and Ishmael.

Tom Lovell, see above


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2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing.

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