Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham
Caspar Netscher(Prague or Heidelberg ca. 1639 – 1684 The
Hague)

1673
oil on canvas
59.5 x 50.5 cm
signed and dated in light paint along upper edge,
right of center: “CNetfcher. fecit 1673.”
CN-106© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/(archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

After many years of marriage, the biblical patriarch Abraham and his wife, Sarah,

Comparative Figures[1]

were unable to conceive a child. In the hope that they might yet beget an heir, Sarahsuggested that Abraham try to have a child with her beautiful, young Egyptian maid
Hagar. Hagar became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Ishmael, when Abraham waseighty-six years old. When, several years later, Sarah eventually became pregnant andhad a son, Isaac, household relations soured. Ishmael began to tease his younger halfbrother, leading Sarah to insist that Abraham banish Hagar and Ishmael from thefamily home; the latter were forced to wander in the desert.
Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham is one of only two biblical subjects painted by
Caspar Netscher (the other is Bathsheba, dated 1667).[2] The subject is not only an
unusual choice for Netscher, but is generally quite rare in seventeenth-century Dutch
art.[3] By contrast, other episodes from the Old Testament story of Hagar were fairly

Fig 1. Caspar Netscher, MusicalCompany, 1665, oil on panel, 44 x 36
cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague, inv. 125

common. The Dismissal of Hagar, when Abraham is later forced to expel the
Egyptian concubine and his first-born son, was treated on numerous occasions byPieter Lastman (1583–1633) and his contemporaries, by Rembrandt van Rijn
(1606–69), and by artists of the Rembrandt school.[4] The appeal of that particular
episode lay largely in the complex web of emotions it presented for both artist andaudience: Abraham rendered indecisive by conflicting loyalties—faithful to his wife
Sarah yet feeling compassion for Hagar and Ishmael; and Hagar, sorrowful, bereft,
and fearful of what the future might hold for herself and her young son. In its
contrasting of the comforts of the home with the harsh uncertainties of the desert
wilderness, the story served a moralizing purpose as well, reinforcing the primacy ofthe nuclear family and the importance of maintaining domestic order.[5]© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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For artists, however, depicting the moment when the aged Sarah introduces her
maidservant to her husband with the proposal that he impregnate her in order to fulfill
God’s will, offered quite a different set of interpretive possibilities. Rather than
exploring wrenching emotions and complex familial relationships, artists appear tohave been attracted primarily to the story’s salacious aspects; many used it as anopportunity to depict a partially clad or nude young woman in an acceptable historicalcontext. The sixteenth-century German printmakers Hans Sebald Beham (1500–50)
and Georg Pencz (1500–50) made engravings of the subject, which may in turn haveinfluenced Crispijn de Passe the Elder’s engraved illustration for the 1616 edition of
the Liber Genesis, a widely circulated book of biblical prints. Not until the late 1630s
did the subject appear in paintings: three works by the Caravaggesque painterMatthias Stom (ca. 1600–after 1652) highlight the stark contrast between youth andold age, and, with Sarah cast as the aged procuress, Abraham as the client, and Hagar
as the compliant prostitute, present a Biblical take on the perennially popular Dutch
genre theme of mercenary love.[6]Netscher’s Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham appears to be the first rendering of thesubject in Dutch art for more than two decades, and takes the story in a rather
different direction. Like Stom, Netscher’s depiction is influenced by contemporary
genre paintings, but rather than looking to bold Caravaggesque scenes of prostitutes,
procuresses and their lusty clients, Netscher’s painting fits comfortably in the rarified
world of his own elegantly appointed portraits and domestic interiors. Compare, forexample, the highly decorative effect of the lush Portrait of Caspar Ingels and Maria
Christina Bartolotti van den Heuvel, 1672, or a genteel genre scene such as MusicalCompany of 1665 (fig 1).[7]Traces of the forbidden sensuality and questionable morality that characterize Stom’s
dramatic depictions of Sarah, Hagar and Abraham still linger in Netscher’s painting,though they are far more discreetly packaged. Perhaps taking his cue from the Bible,
which states that Abraham “was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold” (Genesis
13:2), Netscher envelops the figures in luxury: shimmering bed curtains, a massive
gold ewer and shallow basin, plush carpets on the table and floor, and fine silk andvelvet garments for the figures themselves. Sarah is no longer a haggard crone withclear links to the stereotypical image of the procuress, but a dignified and mature
woman, an image more in keeping with her status as the mother of the Jewish nation.
Hagar, posed frontally and gazing directly at the viewer, appears oddly disconnectedfrom the transaction that soon dramatically alters her life. Indeed, her attention seems
focused entirely on the viewer.
Hagar’s utter passivity and coy outward gaze are expressly designed to entice theviewer, and her half-hearted attempts to preserve her modesty by covering her breasts© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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and grabbing at her white satin gown to prevent it from sliding completely to the floorin fact only draw attention to the voluptuous body beneath. A servant peers frombehind the canopied bed curtains at right, her eager spying echoing our own
voyeuristic anticipation. The emphasis of Netscher’s painting is on lush visual delights
and titillating sensuality; emotions are politely held in check, and the conversation
between Sarah and Abraham seems simple and pragmatic, with little evident concern
for future repercussions.
The exceptional state of preservation of Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham allows us
to fully appreciate Netscher’s delicate touch and skillful application of paint. Hisability to distinguish the varied tactile surfaces within this richly appointed interiorenhances the work’s overall sensuality. Although it is not known for whom Netscher
painted Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, this work was later acquired by Philippe II,
duc d’Orléans (1674–1723), Palais Royal, Paris, and stayed in that family’s collection
until the late eighteenth century.

- Marjorie E. Wieseman, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
1. The story of Hagar is recounted in Genesis 16 and Genesis 21.
2. Oil on panel, 42 x 36 cm, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich, inv. 1400. Marjorie E.
Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), no. 61.
3. Christine Petra Sellin, Fractured Families and Rebel Maidservants: The Biblical Hagar in SeventeenthCentury Dutch Art and Literature (New York, 2006), 69 and ff., identifies only 11 examples.
4. Richard Hamann, “Hagars abscheid bei Rembrandt und im Rembrandt-Kreise,” Marburger Jahrbuch für
Kunstwissenschaft 8–9 (1936): 471–578; and Christine Petra Sellin, Fractured Families and Rebel
Maidservants: The Biblical Hagar in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Literature (New York, 2006),
106–32.
5. Christine Petra Sellin, Fractured Families and Rebel Maidservants: The Biblical Hagar in SeventeenthCentury Dutch Art and Literature (New York, 2006), 119–24.
6. Matthias Stom, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, 1640s, oil on canvas, 81.5 x 100 cm, Göteborgs
Konstmuseum, Göteborg, inv. GKM 1496. See Christine Petra Sellin, Fractured Families and Rebel
Maidservants: The Biblical Hagar in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Literature (New York, 2006),
76–77.
7. Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk,
2002), nos. 118 and 52 respectively.

ProvenancePhilippe II, duc d’Orléans (1674–1723), Palais Royal, Paris; by descent to his son, Louis, duc d’Orléans(1703–52), Paris (sale, Paris, 9 June 1727, unsold [as “Une jeune Femme & un Viellard”]); by descentto his son, Louis Philippe, duc d’Orléans (1725–85), Paris; by descent to his son, Louis Philippe Joseph,duc d’Orléans (1747–93), Paris [Thomas Moore Slade, London, 1792, purchased in association with the
7th Baron Kinnaird (1754–1805), W. Morland and Thomas Hammersley (Orléans sale, London, April
1793, no. 86)].
Col. Le Blanc, London (sale, Christie’s, London, 27 May 1820, no. 97, as companion to no. 98[CN-111], unsold; sale, Christie’s, London, 16 June 1820, no. 122, as companion to no. 123 [CN-111][for £36.15 to Wilkins]).
William Wilkins (1778–1839), London (his sale, Christie’s, London, 22 May 1830, no. 4 [for £157.10 toBone for Neeld]).
Joseph Neeld (1789–1856), Grittleton House, Wiltshire, by 1830; by descent to his brother, Sir John
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Neeld, 1st bt. (1805–91), Grittleton House; by descent to his son, Sir Algernon William Neeld, 2nd bt.
(1846–1900), Grittleton House; by descent to his brother, Sir Audley Dallas Neeld, 3rd bt. (1849–1941),
Grittleton House; to Joseph Neeld’s descendant via an illegitimate daughter, Lionel William [InigoJones] Neeld [d. 1956], Grittleton House (Neeld sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 July
1945, no. 76 [for £189 to Betts]).
[Eugene Slatter Gallery, London, 1950].
D. Molyneux-Cohan (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 2 December 1964, no. 93).
[H. Shickman Gallery, New York, by 1967 to Sardinsky].
Sol Sardinsky, Philadelphia, 1967–2005 [Noortman Master Paintings, 2005].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2005.

Exhibition History
London, Royal Academy, “The Orléans Gallery Now Exhibiting at the Great Rooms,” April–June 1793,
no. 86.
London, British Institution, “Catalogue of Pictures by Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and English Masters
with which the Proprietors Have Favoured This Institution,” June 1829, no. 183 [lent by William
Wilkins].
London, Eugene Slatter, “1950 Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Masters,” 10 May–8 July 1950, no 22[lent by Eugene Slatter].
New York, H. Shickman Gallery, “Exhibition of Dutch Seventeenth-Century Paintings,” October 1967,
no. 12 [lent by H. Shickman].
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, October
2002–August 2005 [lent by Sol Sardinsky].
Maastricht, European Fine Arts Fair, March 2005 [exhibited by Noortman Master Paintings].
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, February–September
2014 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,” 22
February–22 May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lent by the present
owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham
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of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the present owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of
The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019 [lent by the present
owner].
Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam, “Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: History Paintings from The
Leiden Collection,” 4 February–27 August 2023, no. 19 [lent by the present owner].

References
DuBois de Saint-Gelais, Louis François. Description des Tableaux du Palais Royal avec la vie des peintres
à la tête de leurs ouvrages. Geneva, 1727, 163. (described erroneously as having a landscape background)
Dezalliers d’Argenville, Antoine-Joseph. Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres. 3 vols. Paris,
1745–52, 3:57.
Descamps, Jean Baptiste La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois: avec des portraits gravésen taille-douce, une indication de leurs principaux ouvrages & des réflexions sur leurs différentes
manières. 4 vols. Paris, 1753–64, 3:82.
Fontenai, Louis-Abel de Bonafous, Abbé de. Galerie du Palais Royal gravée d’après les tableaux desdifférentes Écoles qui la composent, avec un abrégé de la vie des peintres. 3 vols. Paris, 1786–1808, 3.
(under “Gaspard Netscher.”)
Le Brun, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre. Galerie des Peintres flamandes, hollandaise et allemands. 3 vols. Paris andAmsterdam, 1792–95, 2:85. (as by Constantijn Netscher.)Wilson, M. The Orléans Gallery Now Exhibiting at the Great Rooms. Exh. cat. London, Royal Academy.
London, 1793, 16, no. 86.
Buchanan, William. Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by
the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution. 2 vols. London, 1824, 1:207.
British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts. Catalogue of Pictures by Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, andEnglish Masters with which the Proprietors Have Favoured This Institution. Exh. cat. London, British
Institution. London, 1829, no. 183.
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French
Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 4:154–55, no. 32.
Nieuwenhuys, Christianus Johannes. A Review of the Lives and Works of Some of the Most Eminent
Painters with Remarks on the Opinions and Statements of Former Writers. London, 1834, 168–69. (as byConstantijn Netscher)
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Verzeichnis der Gemälde Sammlung des königlichen Museum zu Berlin. Berlin,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham
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1837–39, 1:339.
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collectionsof Painting, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., &c. &c. 3 vols. London, 1854–57, 2:247, no. 3.
Stryienski, Casimir. La galerie du régent, Philippe, duc d’ Orléans. Paris, 1913, 185, no. 430.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of
the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith, Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke, 8vols. London, 1907–28, 5:151, no. 1. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis
der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28.
1950 Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Masters. Sales cat. London, Eugene Slatter. London, 1950, no. 22.
H. Shickman Gallery. Exhibition of Dutch Seventeenth Century Paintings. Sales cat. New York, H.
Shickman Gallery. New York, 1967, no. 12.
Atwater, Vivian Lee. Catalogue and Analysis of Eighteenth-Century French Prints After Netherlandish
Baroque Paintings. 2 vols. London, 1988, 2:933, no. 897.
Ydema, Onno. Carpets and Their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings, 1540–1700. Zutphen, 1991, 168,
no. 568.
Wieseman, Marjorie E. Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting. Doornspijk,
2002, 40 n. 17; 80; 254–55, no. 122.
Sellin, Christine Petra. Fractured Families and Rebel Maidservants: The Biblical Hagar in SeventeenthCentury Dutch Art and Literature. New York, 2006, 81–83, fig. 11 and cover illus.
Surh, Dominique. “Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham.” In Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The
Age of Rembrandt. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 37–8, no. 8. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du
Louvre. Paris, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces of
The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 154; 188, no. 67. Translated by Li Ying. Exh.
cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 122–23.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 154–55; 240–41, no. 44. Translatedby Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Schmid, Vanessa I., and Julia I. Armstrong-Totten. The Orléans Collection. Edited by Mary Christian,
70–71, fig. 3.26; 140. Exh. cat. New Orleans, New Orleans Museum of Art. Lewes, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer andthe Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by
Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 30. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham
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Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019, 146, no. 68. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., Christiaan Vogelaar, and Caroline van Cauwenberge. Rembrandt and His
Contemporaries: History Paintings from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Hermitage
Amsterdam. Zwolle, 2023, 88–91, no. 19. [Exhibition catalogue also published in Dutch.]

Versions
Engraved
1. Louis-Michel Halbou, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, 1794, engraving and drypoint, 194 x 161 mm;
in Abbé de Fontenai, Galerie du Palais Royal gravée d’après les tableaux des différentes Ėcoles qui lacomposent, avec un abrégé de la vie des peintres (Paris, 1786–1808), 3: under “Gaspard Netscher.”Versions and Copies
1. After Caspar Netscher, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, canvas, 60 x 50 cm, formerly King ofWurtemburg, sale, Residenzschloss, Stuttgart, 27–29 November 1919, no. 95 (as by Eglon van der Neer,“Der orientalische Sklavenhändler mit Kupplerin”).

2. After Caspar Netscher, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, support unknown, 23 x 18 pouces, formerly
Berger, sale, Paris, 20 October 1817, no. 58.

3. School of Caspar Netscher, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, support and dimensions unknown,
formerly De Vauglas, Samson et al., sale, Paris, 28–30 September 1818, no. 99.

4. After Caspar Netscher, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, support unknown, 76.2 x 66 cm, formerly
Field Marshal Andoche Junot, Duke of Abrantes; his sale, Christie’s, London, 7 July 1817, no. 26; hissale, Christie’s, London, 4 May 1818, no. 49; sale LNV PA 24 12 1822 no 16.

5. After Caspar Netscher, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, canvas, 20 x 18 pouces, formerly Comte deWalterstorff, sale, Paris, 27–28 March 1821, no. 89.

6. After Caspar Netscher, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, canvas, 55.9 x 40.6 cm, sale, Cologne, 28June 1890, no. 62.

7. Attributed to Constantijn Netscher, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, canvas, dimensions unknown,
formerly P. J. Herrenschwand Collection, sale, Paris, 24 January 1810, no. 101.

8. After Caspar Netscher, Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham, support and dimensions unknown, formerly
Dufresne, sale, Destouches, Paris, 26 March 1810, no. 123.
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Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of fine-weight, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed has been lined
and mounted to a stretcher over a rigid paperboard. Cusping along the upper, left and lower edges indicatesthe support’s original dimensions have not been significantly altered, other than perhaps along the right edge.
There is a paper label and a pencil inscription but no wax collection seals, stencils or import stamps along thepaperboard or stretcher reverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by opaque layers of smoothly applied
paint blended wet-into-wet with slightly raised brushwork along the gold pitcher and the underplate’s
highlights. Delicate dabs of paint create the illusion of the pile of the carpet draped over the table.
An underdrawing is visible along Abraham’s neck, beard, and drapery in infrared images captured at
780–1000 nanometers, and compositional changes evident in the X-radiograph include shifts in the positionof Abraham’s head and gaze.
The painting is signed and dated in light paint along the upper edge, just right of center.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2006 and remains in an excellent state of preservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The painting was examined on-site without a stereomicroscope. Magnification provided by a 5x
Optivisor.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection