Laban Searching for his Household Gods

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin

ca. 1753 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

During the years Saint-Aubin competed for the Prix de Rome, students were encouraged to learn printmaking by etching their own compositions. This print takes as its model the painting he submitted to a special competition in 1753, today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The story appears in the Book of Genesis (24:31), in the Old Testament. After Laban refused to grant his son-in-law Jacob his earnings, Jacob’s wife Rachel—Laban’s daughter—stole her father’s household gods and hid them by sitting on a trunk.

Artist

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin

Date

ca. 1753

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Susan Schulman Printseller and Carolyn Bullard Fine Prints and Drawings, in honor of Perrin Stein, 2016