Hagar and Ishmael with the Angel in the Wilderness

This painting illustrates the Old Testament story of Hagar and her son Ishmael (Gene sis 21, 14-19). Sarah presented her husband Abraham with the Egyptian slave Hagar to bear him children because she could not have any herself. Later on, despite her late age, she miraculously conceived and bore her husband a son, Isaac. Hagar’s son mocked Isaac, and then Abraham, prompted by Sarah, expelled Hagar and Ismael, sending them to the desert. The painter captured the moment of the miraculous salvation of the two exiles - with an angel’s aid, the unhappy mother found a water source for her son, who was dying of thirst. Alternating a model from an earlier graphic sheet, this intimately conceived scene with its bright pastel coloration, airy atmospehere of an idyllic landscape, and graceful stylized figures is an illustrative example of Rococo painting in Bohemia, whose important representative Raab was.