Hagar

Signed Albert Toft

Bronze with rich brown patina, on a marble base

Height: 8.6″ (22 cm)

Height including base: 9.8″ (25 cm)

Conceived in 1904, this cast circa 1906

ABOUT THIS ARTWORK

Hagar was first exhibited in 1904 as a plaster at the Laing Art Gallery, Special Inaugural Exhibition of Pictures by British and Foreign Artists.

According to the Bible, Hagar was the Egyptian slave of Sarai, Abram’s wife (whose names later became Sarah and Abraham). Sarai had been barren for a long time and sought a way to fulfil God’s promise that Abram would be the father of many nations, especially since they had grown old, so she offered Hagar to Abram to be his concubine.

Hagar became pregnant, and tension arose between the two women. In the Bible, it is seen that Sarai was despised in the eyes of Hagar as she had conceived whilst Sarai had not. Abraham gave Sarai the liberty to treat Hagar as she pleased, perceiving Hagar as her servant. Sarai eventually dealt harshly with Hagar and so she fled.

Hagar fled into the desert. At a spring en route, an angel appeared to Hagar, who instructed her to return to Sarai and submit to her mistress, so that she may bear a child who ‘shall be a wild ass of a man: his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him, and he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren’ (Genesis 16:9 – 12) and she was told to call her son Ishmael. She then returned to Abram and Sarai, giving birth to a son, whom she named as the angel had instructed.