# The Dismissal of Hagar [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [METSU, Gabriel]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 112 x 86 cm ## Commentary 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. Gabriel Metsu's painting of the subject is highly indebted to the work of the Italianate painter Jan Weenix from Utrecht. The Italianate landscape in the background with its stone bridge and ruinous tower set against mountains, possibly refers to the wilderness mentioned in the biblical text Hagar's dress and white body linen, her straw hat and sandles identify her as a shepherdess common in Italianate paintings of the time. ## Related artworks - [A Musical Party]() - [A Woman Seated at a Table and a Man Tuning a Violin]() - [A Young Woman Composing Music]() - [Breakfast]() - [Dead Cock]() - [Lady Seated in a Window]() - [Man and Woman Sitting at the Virginal]() - [Man Writing a Letter]() - [Portrait of Jan Jacobsz. Hinlopen and His Family]() - [Portrait of the Artist with His Wife Isabella de Wolff in a Tavern]() - [Soldier Paying a Visit to a Young Lady]() - [Tavern Scene]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()