Blamed since the late nineteenth century for the "decline" of Dutch art as it moved toward classicism at the end of the seventeenth century, Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711) was one of the most exalted artists of his time and is the subject of a new wave of scholarly reappraisal. After spending his early career in his native Liège, Lairesse made brief stops in s'Hertogenboschand in Utrecht before moving to Amsterdam in about 1665. He spent the next twenty-five years building a career as one of most successful painters in the city, particularly noted for his decorative paintings in both public institutions and private homes. He was also a prolific printmaker and closely connected with the group of intellectuals known as "Nil Volentibus Arduum," whose ideas about theater and literature helped to shape Lairesse's own art theory. In 1690, shortly after earning a commission to help decorate the new town hall in Amsterdam, Lairesse went blind. He devoted the rest of his career to lecturing and writing, publishing several influential treatises on art. (1)

In his catalogue raisonné for this artist, Alain Roy divides Lairesse's drawings into three groups: rapid pen and ink studies, ink and wash drawings made mainly in preparation for paintings, and more highly-finished pen and wash drawings, executed over chalk or ink sketches.(2) The Expulsion of Hagar belongs to this final group. The prominence of the red underdrawing, which peeks out so clearly through the wash that it reads as a deliberate accent, is somewhat unusual but not unique among drawings by or attributed to Lairesse.(3) While no known print can be associated with this drawing, Lairesse may have intended to publish one: many of the other drawings in this category served as models for printmakers, and in general Lairesse appears to have viewed his drawings as models or preparatory tools, making relatively few of them as independent works of art . In particular, the composition of the present drawing resembles that of Lairesse’s grisaille Jael and Sisera, which served as a model for a mezzotint executed by Wallerant Vaillant.(4) The Expulsion of Hagar and Jael and Sisera are so similar in format and dimensions that they were likely originally planned as a pair. Even locations and wording of the signatures (in both cases, "G. Lairesse inv. f.") are closely related. Although Vaillant did not make a mezzotint version of the Crocker drawing, he did engrave a Guido Reni Judith and Holofernes as a companion to the Jael and Sisera.(5) While the two prints are neatly related thematically, the composition of the Reni does not correspond as closely to the Jael and Sisera as does that of the present drawing.

The Old Testament subject of the expulsion of Hagar was exceptionally popular in seventeenth-century Dutch art.(6) As related in Genesis (16.1-16 and 21.8-21), Abraham’s barren wife, Sarah, gave her servant Hagar to her husband so he could have children. Hagar and Abraham had a son, Ishmael, but when Sarah herself later bore a child, she insisted that her husband banish Hagar and the boy from their home. Initially reluctant, Abraham agreed to cast the pair into the wilderness when God promised to make a great nation of Ishmael. The mother and son were eventually rescued by an angel and Ishmael lived to father many children, finally dying at the age of 137. The overwhelming majority of depictions of the subject at the time include various props and attributes specific to the story: the water bottle mentioned in the biblical account, Abraham, and Sarah all appear regularly. Hagar herself is often depicted weeping. Her serene smile and the absence of attributes set this version apart from others of the time, though her classically-inspired pose and dress as well as her sensual appearance are in keeping with contemporary trends, as seen in Lairesse's own painting of Hagar in the Wilderness, executed at about the same time as this drawing.(7)