The Banishment of Hagar
In this scene from the Book of Genesis, Abraham casts out his son Ishmael and the boy’s mother, the servant Hagar, to placate his wife, Sarah, who wants Isaac, her son with Abraham, to be sole heir. Abraham’s pose, with arms outstretched to both women, embodies the emotional and moral tension of the story. The simplicity of the composition and the delicate color harmonies attest to Overbeck’s appreciation for early Renaissance painting. Although many of his contemporaries regarded this bygone art as archaic, he championed its purity and spirituality. In 1809, Overbeck brought together a cohort of like-minded German artists, who came to be called the Nazarenes, after some of Jesus’s first followers.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Banishment of Hagar
- Artist: Johann Friedrich Overbeck (German, Lübeck 1789–1869 Rome)
- Date: 1839–41
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 39 in. × 44 3/4 in. (99.1 × 113.7 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund; and Charles and Jessie Price Gift, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.107
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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