She thinks to herself, “I cannot bear to watch Ishmael die,” and she begins to weep. Having run out of water, Hagar can no longer bear the sight of her suffering son, so she leaves Ishmael under a bush and goes off to pray. In this biblical narrative, which appears in Genesis 21:15–19, Hagar and her son Ishmael are expelled from Abraham’s house and wander in the wilderness for days. With the compelling figure of the angel offering divine assistance at Hagar’s darkest hour, Fabritius invites the viewer to become fully engaged in the story.įabritius’s monumental depiction of a woman kneeling in prayer while being visited by an angel is a powerfully moving interpretation of the Old Testament story of Hagar and the angel. He focuses the viewer’s attention on Hagar’s moment of suffering, while alluding to other moments in the broader narrative. Here, in this rare and wonderful example, we see this gifted painter and storyteller at his very best. 2 Fabritius selected dramatic moments from the Bible and classical mythology, often unusual subjects that he treated in movingly human terms. 1 It is one of only five surviving history paintings from his hand (only 13 paintings by him are known) and his sole painting still in a private collection. Carel Fabritius, who died tragically at the height of his career in the explosion of the Delft powder house in 1654, painted this masterpiece around 1645, shortly after he had completed his apprenticeship with Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69).
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