Lot 1194 | Hager und Ismael

USCHNER, JULIUS
1805 Lübben - 1885 Dresden


Title: Hager und Ismael.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 91 x 74,5cm.
Signature remains bottom left.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

In this painting, the painter Julius Uschner depicts a well-known passage from the Old Testament of the Bible: the story of Hagar and Ishmael.
The exciting and dramatic three-way relationship between Abraham, his wife Sarah and the concubine Hagar is narrated here. The childless couple Abraham and Sarah were very worried about the allocation of their inheritance. This situation was a great shame for Sarah in particular, because in the Orient a woman's reputation depended on the number of children she had. So she arranged for Abraham to take her Egyptian maid Hagar as his wife in order to bear children with her.
During the pregnancy, Hagar respected her mistress Sarah only slightly, and the angry Sarah humiliated Hagar so much that she fled into the desert.
Alone and helpless in the desert, Hagar met an angel of God who encouraged her and accompanied her back to Abraham and Sarah. There she gave birth to a son named Ishmael. After living together peacefully for thirteen years, the dramatic turn occurred. God promised Abraham to give his wife Sarah children and so they drove Hagar and her son Ishmael into the desert again. After a long odyssey through the dry desert, they ran out of water and it was hardly possible for them to wander any further. Hagar had to put down her son, but could not look at the misery of her suffering son and went away alone. Then an angel of God met her again and encouraged her to return to Ishmael and save him. The angel reaffirmed his promise of a great nation and showed Hagar a well that relieved the distress. From then on, Ishmael grew up under God's care and was married by Hagar to an Egyptian woman.
In Julius Uschner's painting, the scene described is depicted after the water was found. Hagar is shown as a loving and caring mother, devoted to her child who is dying of thirst. Ishmael sits on his mother Hagar's lap and gratefully drinks from the small bowl she hands him. This depiction is framed by high mountains, behind them a deep abyss opens up and allows a view into the far distance where the sun seems to set. In the right edge of the picture, a green cloth bag tied together and a walking stick can be seen: the last belongings of mother and son.