The artwork titled “Absalom riding on a mule is caught by the hair on the branch of a great oak” was created by Marc Chagall in 1956 in France. This piece, an etching on paper, is a part of the Naïve Art (Primitivism) movement and belongs to the series “Etchings for the Bible” that spans from 1930-1939 to 1952-1956. The dimensions of the artwork are 31.9 x 24.5 cm, and it falls under the genre of religious painting.
The etching depicts a scene from the biblical narrative found in Second Samuel 18:9. The composition features Absalom, the son of King David, caught by his hair in the thick branches of a large oak tree, suspended helplessly while his mule continues onward. The scene is rendered in a naive yet evocative style, capturing the drama of the moment with an ethereal quality typical of Chagall’s work. The interplay of light and shadow, along with the fluid lines of the etching, contributes to the narrative’s dramatic tension and emotional depth.
