4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2010.

Hagar

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 number2002.26.11

Terms

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting referring to the Old Testament story of Sarai, Abraham's wife, and Hagar, Sarai's Egyptian slave. Hagar is shown from the side, seated on a black chair. She wears a veil and cloak of shiny black; her waist is bound to a chair with a rope, with the end of the rope hidden in part by the excess black fabric. Her arms and hands are covered by long white gloves, and she holds a small dried bouquet of red flowers. Her feet are bare on the rusty-brown tile floor. Behind her is a framed painting of a beach with clouds overhead; Hagar's shadow looms over the framed painting. The shadow silhouette does not match the veiled profile: her forehead, nose, and lips are visible in the shadow, unlike the veiled profile the viewer intially sees.

Label 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