Hagar in the Wilderness

Hagar and her son Ishmael have been driven from Abraham’s home and left in the desert without water. The mother appeals to God, while an angel is already approaching in the sky. Corot placed this biblical story in a landscape based on studies of the French countryside. Exhibited in Paris in 1835, the large landscape gained the status of history painting through its sacred subject.

Hagar has fallen to her knees. She raises one hand and presses the other to her forehead. Her gesture is directed toward the sky, but the small angel above the trees is easier for the viewer to notice than for Hagar herself.

Ishmael lies beside his mother, his head thrown back and one arm hanging down. In the biblical account he is exhausted by thirst. A dry watercourse runs beneath them. The barren landscape is tied to a specific danger: the lack of water.

A winged figure appears above the trees. The angel connects the landscape with the biblical account of help reaching Hagar.

Dark trees stand against the pale sky. This broad arrangement of light and shade organises the space around the small figures.

A flat rock projects above the path. Observations of stone help Corot make the constructed setting convincing.

Sunlit rock walls rise beyond the trees. Changes in illumination separate the foreground from more distant terrain.

At twenty-six Corot gained the independence to leave the cloth trade for painting. He combined outdoor studies with ambitious Salon pictures made in the studio during winter. This work brings those practices together.