Hagar and Ishmael

According to the Book of Genesis, the young Ishmael and his mother Hagar were banished into the desert by his father Abraham for mocking his other son by Sarah, Isaac. The pair would surely have died of thirst, if an angel, by tradition the archangel Michael, had not appeared and led them to a well. This scene illustrates the moment the angel appears to Hagar. The figure group is loosely derived from a composition by Mola known in three versions (Louvre, Paris; Christ Church Gallery, Oxford; Suida-Manning Collection, New York).