Hagar in the Wilderness1835
Cast out into the desert with her son Ishmael, Hagar kneels in despair beside the dying child as an angel swoops down from the sky to show her a well of water. More about this work
About this work
Cast out into the desert with her son Ishmael, Hagar kneels in despair beside the dying child as an angel swoops down from the sky to show her a well of water. Corot exhibited this large canvas at the Salon of 1835, one of his early efforts to unite a biblical story with a landscape built from studies made in Italy: the parched, rocky hills and pale sky give the scene its sense of desolation. Later in life he became famous for softer, silvery woods, but this picture shows the clear structure he learned from the Italian countryside.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Jean Baptiste Camille Corot
French, 1796–1875 · Born and died in Paris.
Corot trained with the landscape painters Achille-Etna Michallon and Jean-Victor Bertin, then spent 1825–28 in Italy, where his small oil sketches of Rome and the Campagna caught its clear light with great economy. He returned to Italy twice and travelled widely in France. His Salon pictures moved from classical landscape to the silvery, misty reveries that made him famous in the 1850s and 1860s, and late in life he painted thoughtful figure studies of models in costume.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 38.64
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Paintings
- Department
- European Paintings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
