Sarai
Artist
Nancy Camden Witt
(American, 1930-2009)
Date1981
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 51 x 38 in. (129.5 x 96.5 cm)
ClassificationsContemporary art
Credit LineGift of the family of Joel B. Cooper, in memory of Mary and Dudley Cooper
Object number2002.26.12
Terms
- Woman
- Bible
- Chair
- Beach
- Sand
- Waves
- Cloud
- Old Testament
- Blue
- White
- Gray
- Black
- Tan
Collections
On View
On viewLabel TextNancy Camden Witt American, 1930–2009 Hagar, 1981 Oil on canvas Sarai, 1981 Oil on canvas Nancy Witt’s hyper-realistic paintings depict the biblical figures of Sarai (Sarah) and Hagar. Sarai was unable to bear children and told her husband Abraham to impregnate her Egyptian slave Hagar. After Hagar became pregnant with a son, Ishmael, her relationship with Sarai deteriorated. Eventually Sarai had her own son, Isaac, and expelled Hagar and Ishmael from her home. Witt’s vision of this story draws on the psychological theories of Carl Jung, whose writings focus on the process of integrating the human unconscious into our conscious lives. Sarai sits in a white wedding gown, and Hagar wears mournful black. The women become each other’s “shadow”— Jung’s term for the hidden and public sides of a single personality. Gift of the family of Joel B. Cooper, in memory of Mary and Dudley Cooper 2002.26.11-.12