See Genesis xxi.

The incident of which the engraving before us is the illustration, the dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael from the tent of Abraham, is thus described in the twenty-first chapter of Genesis.

"Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, cast out this bond woman and her son for the son of the bondwoman, shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.

"And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar (putting it on her shoulder), and the child, and sent her away and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

The story of Hagar and Ishmael appears always to have been a favorite subject for pictorial, treatment, and the pencil of the artist has helped much to make the chief incidents relating to them familiar. M. Dore has again told the story in his own original and effective way, his portrayal of their expulsion being artistic in conception and execution, tender in sentiment and faithful to the spirit of the East.