NARRATOR:
The story of Rebecca at the well comes from the Old Testament. God had promised Abraham that he would have many descendants, but he had just one son, Isaac who, at 40, was still unmarried. Abraham sent his trusted servant Eliezer to Mesopotamia to find a suitable wife for his son. Exhausted from his long journey and worried that he wouldn’t know the right woman when he met her, Eliezer stopped at a well and prayed for guidance. Rebecca, who was drawing water at the well, offered Eliezer and his camels a drink. Immediately Eliezer realized that he had found the right bride.
This subject had been popular with artists for centuries, but Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot took a different approach. Instead of painting the moment when Rebecca meets Eliezer, with camels and other servants in the picture, Corot shows Rebecca alone. She dominates the landscape—if she were to stand up, she would be taller than the canvas. Rebecca rests her chin on her right hand, and her gaze doesn’t seem to focus on anything in particular. She seems contemplative, even melancholy. Perhaps she is overtaken by a vision of her future in a faraway land, separated from her family forever. Corot created many images of pensive figures in landscapes, both religious and secular.
Rebecca at the Well
1838-1839
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)
Not on View
In the book of Genesis, Abraham sends his servant Eliezer out to find a bride for his son Isaac. Eliezer comes upon Rebecca, a stranger, who draws water from a well for him and all his camels. Recognizing her kindness, he identifies her as a suitable bride for Isaac and gives her a ring as a token of gratitude. Nicolas Poussin, progenitor of the French classical tradition, famously painted the encounter of Rebecca and Eliezer in the seventeenth century (a picture today in the Louvre), and many artists followed suit. But in this succinct treatment of the story, Corot included only Rebecca, waiting with her jug beside the well, no ring in evidence. Seated on the ground, she looks up expectantly, as if just catching sight of Eliezer.
Details
- Artist Name: Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)
- Title: Rebecca at the Well
- Date: 1838-1839
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 19-3/4 x 29-1/4 in. (50.2 x 74.3 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1972.21.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Chailloux, 1883.
Manzi, Paris.
[Alphonse Portier, Paris, 1890];
Paul Gallimard, Paris.
Jules Strauss (sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 3 May 1902, lot 12, ill., as Rébecca à la fontaine, for Ff 9,000, to);
Nicolas Auguste Hazard to;
Julie Pauline Hazard (d.1919; sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit,1-3 December 1919, lot 75, ill., as Rebecca, for Ff 35,000 to;);
[Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Paris, stock no. 21.800, sold 7 March 1923 to;]
Burgeard.
David David-Weill, Paris; by 1920 or 36-1958.
[Galerie Schmit, Paris by 1971; sold, as Rebecca, 24 April 1972 to] ;
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Manzi, Paris.
[Alphonse Portier, Paris, 1890];
Paul Gallimard, Paris.
Jules Strauss (sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 3 May 1902, lot 12, ill., as Rébecca à la fontaine, for Ff 9,000, to);
Nicolas Auguste Hazard to;
Julie Pauline Hazard (d.1919; sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit,1-3 December 1919, lot 75, ill., as Rebecca, for Ff 35,000 to;);
[Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Paris, stock no. 21.800, sold 7 March 1923 to;]
Burgeard.
David David-Weill, Paris; by 1920 or 36-1958.
[Galerie Schmit, Paris by 1971; sold, as Rebecca, 24 April 1972 to] ;
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Exposition d'oeuvres de Camille J.-B. Corot (1796-1875): Figures et paysages d'Italie au profit de la Bibliothèque d'art & d'archéologie de l'Université de Paris
- Paris, Paul Rosenberg, 1928-06-06 to 1928-07-07
Exposition Corot 1796-1875
- Paris, Galerie Schmit, 1971-05-12 to 1971-06-12
[on loan]
- Phoenix, Phoenix Art Museum, 1972-07-25 to 1973-02-09
Corot 1796-1875
- Paris, Grand Palais, 1996-02-28 to 1996-05-27
- National Gallery of Canada, 1996-06-21 to 1996-09-22
- New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996-10-22 to 1997-01-19
Exposition de Peinture Française
- Kunsthalle Basel, 1921-05-08 to 1921-06-30
Corot
- Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, 1936 to
- Lyon, Musée de Lyon, 1936-05-24 to 1936-06-28
Images of the Landscape, Barbizon and Impressionist Paintings from the Permanent Collection
- Norton Simon Museum, 1987-07-02 to 1989-10-29
Reinstallation of South Wing
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
Three Centuries of French Art: Selections from The Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art and The Norton Simon Foundation_1
- California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1973-05-03 to 1976-06-15
- Robaut, Alfred, L'Oeuvre de Corot,
- Moreau-Nélaton, Étienne, Corot: Raconté par lui-même, fig. 281 p. 158
- Meier-Græfe, Julius, Corot, p. 58
- Faure, Élie, Corot, fig. 24
- Goya, p. 59
- Robaut, Alfred, L'Oeuvre de Corot, 1905, no. 382
- Bataille Georges, Documents: Doctrines, Archéologie, Beaux-Arts, Ethnographie, 1920, pp. 84-92
- Fosca, François, L'Amour de l'Art, 1938, p. 161
- Fosca, François, Corot: Sa vie et son oeuvre, 1958, fig. 30
- Hommage à Corot, 1975, under no. 100
- Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, 1979, p. 62
- Selz, Jean, La vie et l'oeuvre de Camille Corot, 1988, p. 126
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 115
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 814 p. 341
- Corot: L'Armoire Secrete, A Girl Reading in Context, 2011, Abb.21 p.42
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