DUJARDIN, Karel
(b. 1622, Amsterdam, d. 1678, Venezia)

Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness

c. 1662
Oil on canvas, 187 x 143 cm
Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

Dujardin was a Dutch Italianate painter. Additionally, he painted handsome portraits of famous citizens in the style of Bartholomeus van der Helst, and he also painted elegant, highly finished religious and allegorical paintings, like the picture shown here.

Hagar, the Egyptian hand maiden of Sarah was the mother of Ishmael, Abraham's first son. When Isaac, Sarah's son, was born Ishmael mocked his younger brother so that Sarah asked Abraham to banish him, together with his mother. Abraham provided them with bread and a bottle of water and sent them off into the desert of Beersheba. When the water was spent Hagar put Ishmael under a bush to die and then sat some way off, weeping. But an angel appeared, by tradition the archangel Michael, and disclosed a well of water near by, so they were both saved. Two scenes, the banishment, and the appearance of the angel are common in 17th century Italian and Dutch painting.