Wife of the Levite from Ephraim

Wife of the Levite from Ephraim

Jean-Jacques Henner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Best known for his paintings of mysterious and sensuous nudes, Henner also treated religious themes with a particular focus on the victims in biblical narratives. This drawing relates to a major work that he first prepared for the Salon of 1895, "Wife of the Levite from Ephraim." Its subject draws upon a prose poem by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) based on the Old Testament (Judges 19–21), in which, to avoid his own rape by a mob, the Levite offered up his concubine instead. This early study focuses on the violated, prone body of the Levite’s sacrificed wife. The final version of the composition, "The Levite of Ephraim and His Dead Wife" (Art Gallery of Hamilton), won Henner a medal of honor when he exhibited at the Salon of 1898, and includes the remorseful figure of the Levite.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wife of the Levite from EphraimWife of the Levite from EphraimWife of the Levite from EphraimWife of the Levite from EphraimWife of the Levite from Ephraim

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.