In this scene from the Book of Genesis, Abraham casts out his son Ishmael and the boy’s mother, the servant Hagar, to placate his wife, Sarah, who wants Isaac, her son with Abraham, to be sole heir. Abraham’s pose, with arms outstretched to both women, embodies the emotional and moral tension of the story. The simplicity of the composition and the delicate color harmonies attest to Overbeck’s appreciation for early Renaissance painting. Although many of his contemporaries regarded this bygone art as archaic, he championed its purity and spirituality. In 1809, Overbeck brought together a cohort of like-minded German artists, who came to be called the Nazarenes, after some of Jesus’s first followers.
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Title:The Banishment of Hagar
Artist:Johann Friedrich Overbeck (German, Lübeck 1789–1869 Rome)
Date:1839–41
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:39 in. × 44 3/4 in. (99.1 × 113.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund; and Charles and Jessie Price Gift, 2024
Object Number:2024.107
Inscription: Signed with monogram and dated, lower right: FO/1841
Martin Johann Jenisch the Younger, Hamburg (1841–d. 1857; commissioned from the artist in 1830); his wife, Frau Senator Fanny Henriette Jenisch (Fanny Henriette Roeck), Hamburg (1857–d. 1881); by descent to Jenisch family, the Netherlands, Hamburg, and Bad Oldesloe (1881–2016; on loan to Altonaer Museum, Hamburg, 1971–2016; sale, Christie's, London, December 13, 2016, no. 11, for £470,000 to private collection); private collection (2016–24; sold through Gallery 19C, Westlake, Texas, to The Met)
Kunsthalle, Hamburg. "Verzeichnis neuerer Gemälde und Zeichnungen in Hamburgischen Privatbesitz, ausgestellt in der Kunsthalle zu Hamburg zum Besten des Lessing-Denkmals," May 15–July 15, 1879, no. 553 (as "Austreibung der Hagar", lent by Frau Senator Jenisch).
Lübeck. Museum Behnhaus. "Overbeck und sein Kreis," Summer 1926, no. 231 [see Hamburg 1973 and Christie's 2016].
Hamburg. Altonaer Museum. "Die Gemäldesammlung des Hamburgischen Senators Martin Johann Jenisch D. J. (1793–1857)," July 4–September 2, 1973, no. 39 (as "Verstoβung der Hagar").
Rome. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna. "I Nazareni a Roma," January 22–March 22, 1981, no. 83 (as "Il ripudio di Agar," lent by the Altonaer Museum, Hamburg).
Museen für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck. "Johann Friedrich Overbeck, 1789–1869: Zur zweihundertsten Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages," June 25–September 3, 1989, no. 28 (as "Abraham verstösst Hagar und Ismael," lent by the Altonaer Museum, Hamburg).
Erwin Speckter. Briefe eines deutschen Künstlers aus Italien. Leipzig, 1846, vol. 1, p. 120, as the "Vertreibung der Hagar".
Margaret Howitt and Franz Binder. Friedrich Overbeck: Sein Leben und Schaffen. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1886, vol. 2, pp. 139–42, 421–22, discuss the history of the commission, its related preparatory sketches, and the related print; state that it was commissioned in 1830, begun in July 1839, and completed early in 1841; call it "Vertreibung der Hagar" and "Verstossung der Hagar und Ismaels".
Friedrich von Boetticher. Malerwerke des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Dresden, 1898, vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 200, no. 31, as "Verstossung Hagar's u. Ismael's"; notes it was commissioned in 1830 but begun in 1839 and completed in 1840.
Kurt Karl Eberlein and Carl Georg Heise. Overbeck und sein Kreis. Munich, 1928, p. 32, no. 16, ill., as "Abraham verstösst Hagar und Ismael"; state that it is in the collection of "[Thyra] Freifrau v[on]. Jenisch," at Schloss Blumendorf bei Oldesloe (today, Gut[sverwaltung] Blumendorf, Bad Oldesloe).
Christine Knupp. Die Gemäldesammlung des hamburgischen Senators Martin Johann Jenisch D. J. (1793–1857). Exh. cat., Altonaer Museum in Hamburg. Hamburg, 1973, pp. 15–16, 27, no. 39, ill. p. 64, as "Verstossung der Hagar"; dates its completion as 1841; provides early exhibition history and bibliography; notes the locations of various studies for it.
Sigrid Metken inI Nazareni a Roma. Ed. Klaus Gallwitz et al. Exh. cat., Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome. Rome, 1981, p. 206, no. 83, ill. p. 207, as "Il ripudio di Agar"; dates it 1841; erroneously lists it as a bequest of baron Johann von Jenisch to the Altonaer Museum, Norddeutsche Landesmuseum in Hamburg; notes that the cartoon for the painting was ready in 1834 and was exhibited in Berlin in 1836; states that the painting was begun in July of 1839 following Jenisch's visit to Overbeck in Rome and was sent to the senator in Hamburg in spring of 1841.
Andreas Blühm inJohann Friedrich Overbeck, 1789–1869: Zur zweihundertsten Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages. Ed. Andreas Blühm and Gerhard Gerkens. Exh. cat., Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck - Behnhaus. Lübeck, 1989, p. 152, no. 28. ill. p. 153 (color), as a permanent loan from Johann Freiherr von Jenisch to the Altonaer Museum; calls the painting characteristic of Overbeck's late style; discusses the related drawings.
Johann Friedrich Overbeck, 1789–1869: Zur zweihundertsten Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages. Ed. Andreas Blühm and Gerhard Gerkens. Exh. cat., Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck - Behnhaus. Lübeck, 1989, p. 255.
Deutsche Malerei und Zeichnungen des 19. Jahrhunderts. Sotheby's, Munich. November 29, 1989, unpaginated, under no. 16, states that Overbeck's drawing "Abraham verstõsst Hagar und Ismael" (no. 16) served as a template for the painting.
Cordula A. Grewe. "The Invention of the Secular Devotional Picture." Word & Image 16 (January–March 2000), pp. 52–53, fig. 10.
Michael Thimann. "Hieroglyphen der Trauer: Johann Friedrich Overbecks 'Beweinung Christi'." Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 28 (2001), pp. 195, 219 n. 29, notes that in completing the painting Overbeck had to put other commissions on hold; remarks that the picture is frequently mentioned in his Roman diary and in Overbeck's family letters; states that Overbeck reported the work as completed in 1841.
Michael Thimann. Friedrich Overbeck und die Bildkonzepte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Regensburg, 2014, pp. 260–62, colorpl. XXIV, dates its creation to 1830–41, noting that the actual painting began in 1839; states that the artist draws a parable of the replacement of the old by the new covenant from the concrete Old Testament imagery related to the fate of Hagar and Sarah.
19th Century Art. Christie's, London. December 13, 2016, pp. 32–34, no. 11, ill. (color), states that it was painted in 1841 and has remained in private hands ever since; reproduces related studies for the painting.
Cordula Grewe. The Nazarenes: Germany's 19th Century Avant-Garde Artists. Gallery 19C. 2023, pp. 30, 72–73, 101, no. 8, ill. front cover, pp. 13, 72, 74–75, 101 (color, overall and details), notes that it is one of Overbeck's few biblical histories painted in oil and that the scene is likely based on the interpretation by Paul (Galatians 4:21–24); states that, upon its arrival in Hamburg, the picture took pride of place among Jenisch's collection of one hundred paintings in the senator's new country house on the Elbe and that it was among the few oil paintings by Overbeck to be seen in person in Germany.
Alison Hokanson in "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 2022–2024." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 82 (Fall 2024), p. 39, ill. (color), calls it the most important Nazarene painting in a United States museum.
Friedrich Olivier (German, Dessau 1791–1859 Dessau)
1830–35
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