Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Genesis 41:25
The passage
And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.
Genesis 41:25
About this plate
A deep Egyptian hall, columns with heavy carved capitals marching off to the right, every wall cut with figures and hieroglyphs. Pharaoh sits on a raised throne at the left, leaning back with one hand up near his head. Around him the court is packed: headdresses, fans, feathered standards, guards in scale armour, women seated on the steps. Out on the open floor, alone, a young man in a plain white robe stands barefoot with one arm raised and the other hand open.
Dore has dressed every single person in this room except one. The court is all pattern and ornament and gold, and the man speaking has nothing on but a white shift and a belt. The eye goes to him because he is the only blank space in the picture.
The verse is the first thing Joseph says, and he says it before he gives any interpretation at all. The dream of Pharaoh is one. God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. He corrects the king on the arithmetic, and then he takes the credit away from himself in the same breath.
He is barefoot on a polished floor in a room full of sandals and armour.
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