Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Genesis 21:17
The passage
And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
Genesis 21:17
About this plate
Hagar kneels against the foot of an enormous rock, sitting back on her heels with both arms up over her head and her face hidden in them. Down to the right, out on the open sand, the boy lies flat and still. Between the two of them, half buried, is the empty water bottle on its side.
The rock takes up most of the plate. It is bare, smooth and far bigger than either of them, and it gives nothing. There is one strip of sky at the top right and it is empty. No angel anywhere in the picture.
The verse is the rescue. God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not. Doré draws the second before any of that.
Look at the bottle again. She carried it until it was empty, put the boy down, and went as far off as she could bear. The bottle is lying exactly halfway between them.
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