Hagar in the Desert Consoled by an Angel
Medium
Engraving; first state of three
Dimensions
Plate: 6 7/8 × 8 1/4 in. (17.5 × 21 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Julia J. Fitzgerald, 1963
Accession Number
63.634.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 16th century, engraver Jan Muller (also known as Harmen Jansz. Muller) created *Hagar in the Desertsoled by an Angel in 1591, a poignant engraving capturing a biblical scene from Genesis. The print depicts the outcast servant Hagar, abandoned in the wilderness with her son Ishmael, as a divine angel appears to offer solace and reveal a well of water—symbolizing God's mercy amid despair. Tags like angels, women, and trees highlight the composition's ethereal figures amid a sparse, dramatic landscape, evoking themes of faith and redemption popular in Northern European art during the ...
About the Artist
Jan Muller|Harmen Jansz. Muller · 1571–1628
**Jan Harmensz. Muller (1571–1628)** Born in Amsterdam in 1571, Jan Harmensz. Muller grew up immersed in the world of printmaking, as the son of the prominent engraver, publisher, and book printer Harmen Jansz. Muller. He studied under his father, mastering the engraving trade within the family business, The Gilded Compasses. Around 1589, Muller joined the workshop of Hendrick Goltzius in Haarlem...