Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael

Guercino's Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael from 1657 depicts the poignant Old Testament moment when Abraham reluctantly sends away his concubine Hagar and their son Ishmael at Sarah's insistence. The subject allowed Guercino to explore conflicting emotions—Abraham's anguish, Sarah's determination, Hagar's despair—within a balanced classical composition. This late work demonstrates the measured, classicizing style he adopted after Guido Reni's death in 1642, when he became Bologna's pre-eminent painter.

The figural group is arranged with classical poise, the gestures and expressions conveying the scene's emotional complexity without theatrical excess. Guercino's warm, golden palette and fluid brushwork maintain his characteristic painterly richness within the more restrained framework of his late style.