Hagar and Ishmael
Jean-François Millet (1814 - 1875), 1848-1849
oil on canvas, 147 cm x 236.5 cm
Credits: The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
In 1848 the Paris artist Millet was commissioned by the French government to paint the story of Hagar and Ishmael. The Bible recounts how the maidservant Hagar bore a child, Ishmael, to Abraham, because his wife Sarah was barren. When Sarah did later give birth to a son, Abraham sent Hagar and her child into the wilderness.
Millet painted the moment when Hagar turns away from her son, unable to bear the pain of watching him die of thirst. Millet concentrated all attention on the figures, thereby conveying the story’s essence, namely human suffering.
Millet would never finish the painting, perhaps because of his departure for rural Barbizon. In June 1849 he moved there permanently to paint landscapes and scenes of peasant life.
- Object number
- hwm0262
- Dimensions
- 147 cm x 236.5 cm, 184 cm x 274 cm, 13 cm
- Provenance
- Widow of the artist, by 1887; auction Paris, Durand-Ruel (Collection Cottier), lot 97 (Agar dans le désert), purchased by Hendrik Willem Mesdag, The Hague for FRF 6100, 27-28 May 1892; Collection Museum Mesdag donated by Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten to the State of the Netherlands, 14 May 1903; Rijksmuseum H.W. Mesdag, The Hague, from 1 August 1903; in trust of the Mauritshuis, The Hague, between 1934 and 1990; in trust of the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, from 1 April 1990; Museum Mesdag, in trust of the Van Gogh Museum Foundation, Amsterdam, from 1 July 1994, under the name of De Mesdag Collectie from 2011.
- artist
- Jean-François Millet
- Credits
- The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
Saint Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum, Millet and Modern Art: From Van Gogh to Dalí, 16 February-7 September 2020
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Jean-François Millet. Zaaier van de moderne kunst, 4 October 2019-12 January 2020
Kelly, Simon, Dijk, Maite van, Bakker, Nienke, Yoder, Abigail, Jean-François Millet : zaaier van de moderne kunst, Bussum, 2019, p. 96
Kelly, Simon, Dijk, Maite van, Bakker, Nienke, Yoder, Abigail, Jean-François Millet : sowing the seeds of Modern Art, Bussum, 2019, p. 96
Kelly, Simon, Dijk, Maite van, Bakker, Nienke, Yoder, Abigail, Millet and Modern Art : from Van Gogh to Dalí, Amsterdam, 2019, p. 96
Serra, Roberta, Bourrut-Lacouture, Annette, Fourmanoir, Jérôme, Etesse, Gaëlle, Ismaël : Virginie Demont-Breton (1859-1935), Tourcoing, 2018, p. 39-40
The European fine art fair (TEFAF) Maastricht 2013, Helvoirt, 2013, p. 114
Dijk, Maite van, Suijver, Renske, Fitski, M., Smits, C., De Mesdag Collectie, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 18-19, p. 30-31
Dijk, Maite van, Suijver, Renske, Fitski, M., Smits, C., The Mesdag Collection, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 18, 30-31
Boitelle, René, Bosc, Marion, Berg, Klaas-Jan van den, Reflections on J.-F. Millet's Agar et Ismaël : technical analyses of an unfinished painting, p. 7-21
Vergeest, Aukje, The French collection : nineteenth-century French paintings in Dutch public collections, Amsterdam, 2000, p. 230
Bodt, Saskia de, Leeman, Fred, Leeuw, Ronald de, Pennock, Hanna, Museum Mesdag : catalogue of paintings and drawings, Zwolle, 1996, p. 69, 335-337