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, Italian, 1634-1689
Title
The Expulsion of Hagar
Date1669-1689
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
136 x 97 cm
Credit LineMilltown Gift, 1902
Object numberNGI.1670
Label TextRoman painter Ferri has exercised artistic license with this story from the Old Testament. Sarah and her husband Abraham were 90 and 100 years old respectively, when God blessed them with a son, Isaac. Abraham already had a teenage son, Ishmael, with their Egyptian servant, Hagar. Sarah did not want Ishmael to benefit from inheritance, so she instructed Abraham to banish Hagar and Ishmael. Ferri depicted Abraham and Sarah (who watches the eviction from an upstairs window) as relatively youthful. Ishmael is shown as a young child, perhaps to evoke the viewer’s sympathy for the abandoned mother and son.