The Prophet Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

Cornelis van Poelenburch

National Gallery of Art

In a landscape with ruins overgrown with plants, a bearded, old man greets a kneeling young woman and boy near the lower right corner in this horizontal painting. At least seven people move through the landscape beyond, and everyone has light skin and is barefoot. In the trio to the lower right, the man stands facing our right in profile. He has a steel-gray beard and hair, a prominent nose, and his mouth is closed. He wears a thistle-purple tunic under a scarlet-red cloak. He looks down at the woman, and he holds out his right hand, closer to us, toward her. In front of him, to our right, the woman kneels facing our left with her arms spread, as she looks toward the man’s extended hand. She wears a sapphire-blue dress with white sleeves, and honey-brown fabric wraps over one shoulder and around her waist. The boy next to her holds a bundle of sticks with both arms. He has dark hair and wears a brown robe over a plum-purple tunic. The landscape around them has some scrubby green growth along the dirt ground. One column holding up a crumbling entablature rises near us, up along the left edge of the composition. Plants grow over more ruins to our right, which are nestled against a rocky hill a short distance away. In the field between the ruins, a woman wearing a rose-pink robe carries a bundle balanced on her head while other men, wearing coral red, topaz blue, or golden yellow walk, through the landscape. In the distance, there are green hills, slate-blue mountains, and more ruins. The sky is pale yellow near the horizon and changes to lapis blue above, with light gray and white clouds.