Title: Hagar and Ishmael. Artist: Adrian Van der Werff (1659-1722)Original painted Circa 1701. In this scene, Abraham, represented here as a bearded old man wearing a blue and red tunic, is sending away Hagar. Behind him stands an old woman, Sarah, wearing dark clothing. At Sarah’s feet stands her son, Isaac, who is holding onto Abraham’s leg and tunic. Hagar stands with her back to the viewer, but her bare shoulders expose her youth and beauty. She is wearing a water jug and carrying bread to sustain them in the desert. Hagar is leading her young son, Ishmael, away from the house, and he is turned to look back at his half-brother. This image represents a Biblical story from Genesis 21. Because she was sterile for so long, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, encouraged the union of Abraham and Hagar, one of her Egyptian maidservants. Ishmael was born of this union, but shortly afterward, Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son due to divine intervention. Sarah, jealous of Hagar’s fertility and wanting to preserve Isaac’s inheritance, demanded that Abraham banish HagarWerff was a Dutch painter of religious and mythological scenes and portraits, active mainly in Rotterdam. He combined the precise finish of the Leiden tradition (learned from his master Eglon van der Neer) with the classical standards of the French Académie Royale and became the most famous Dutch painter of his day, winning international success and earning an enormous fortune. Houbraken, writing in 1718, considered him the greatest of all Dutch painters and this was the prevailing critical opinion throughout the 18th century. His reputation crumbled in the 19th century, when he was thought to have betrayed the Dutch naturalistic tradition, and he is now considered an extremely accomplished but rather sentimental and repetitive minor master.Van der Werff also worked as an architect in Rotterdam, designing elegant house façades. His brother, Pieter van der Werff (1661–1722), was his principal pupil and assistant, imitating his style closely and making many copies of his work.Overall - 47 x 40.5 - Very heavy solid wood frame.

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