Rebecca at the Well by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini

Rebecca at the Well by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (c. 1708–13)

Drink, my lord

In Genesis 24 the aged Abraham sends the elder servant of his house back to his own country to find a wife for his son Isaac. At a spring outside the city of Nachor the servant asks God for a sign: the right girl will be the one who, when asked, says "Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also" (Genesis 24:14, Douay-Rheims). Rebecca comes down with her pitcher and does exactly that. "Drink, my lord," she answers, and then offers to draw water for the camels "till they all drink" (24:18–19). When the camels have drunk, the servant takes out "golden earrings" and "bracelets" for her (24:22).

Pellegrini paints the moment of the gifts. The National Gallery describes Rebecca as agreeing to the servant's request while he offers her jewellery from a box, with pieces spilling out of it.

What the picture shows

Rebecca stands at the right behind the stone rim of the well. She wears a cream bodice with full puffed sleeves, laced over blue, a pale blue skirt and a dark blue mantle that falls behind her. Her fair hair is pinned up with a white ribbon. Her left forearm rests on the tall pitcher, which has a curling handle, and a thin gold bracelet shows at her wrist; her right hand is raised with the palm open. She looks down at the servant with a slight smile. The National Gallery calls her only mildly startled.

The servant leans on the rim of the well at the lower left, a bald man with a dark beard and sunburnt face, in a loose white shirt with a red cloak across his lap. He looks up at her and has both hands on an open casket, from which beads and jewels spill over the edge. At the lower right a carved lion's head spouts a jet of water into the dark basin below.

Behind the servant, on the left, a figure in a green headcloth and a yellow garment looks down, and a long staff rises beside her. Above, two camels' heads with red bridles and tassels stand against a sky of grey and pink clouds.

How it is painted

The museum points to the contrast between Rebecca's pale skin and golden hair and the servant's tanned features, and to the "long, energetic brushstrokes" of her blue dress and his crimson drapery. The woman and camels behind are painted in paler tones and thinner layers of paint, which sets them back in space, and the sky is laid in thinly, with pinkish clouds.

Pellegrini in England

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini was born in Venice in 1675, the son of a shoemaker from Padua. He trained with the Milanese painter Paolo Pagani, travelling with him to Moravia and Vienna in 1690, and on his return to Venice was influenced by Sebastiano Ricci. Around 1704 he married Angela Carriera, sister of the painter Rosalba Carriera.

In 1708 the Earl of Manchester brought him to England, where he painted decorations at Kimbolton Castle, Castle Howard and Narford Hall. The National Gallery dates this canvas to 1708–13 and thinks it was probably painted during those five English years. From 1713 he worked across northern Europe, in Düsseldorf, The Hague, Prague, Dresden and Vienna, and around 1720 painted a ceiling, since destroyed, for John Law's bank in Paris. He died in 1741.

The painting today

The canvas measures 127.3 by 104.5 centimetres. It was bequeathed to the National Gallery, London, by Claude Dickason Rotch in 1962, and is catalogued as NG6332.

About this print

Made from a photograph of the whole canvas, in its upright format, from the camels' heads at the upper left to the lion's-head spout at the lower right.

Sources: The National Gallery, London, NG6332 · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia, "Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini" · Genesis 24 (Douay-Rheims)