Artist : Marcelle Hanselaar
Title : The Last Laugh, Tamar
Medium : etching / aquatint, ed 30
Dimensions : 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm


ENQUIRE ABOUT THIS WORK



◁



A woman infiltrating the power structure. Tamar ’s first husband died and - as was the custom - she was to marry the second brother. But he refused, fearing that her offspring would not be his, and he died as well. She was now instructed to wait until the third son reached adulthood, but she was not given to him. So when her father in law’s wife died, Tamar decided to force the issue. She veiled herself, sat at the roadside and when Judah, her father-in-law saw her, he desired her but did not know who she was. She asked, in return for their lovemaking, three tokens from him which, later on, when she was pregnant, she showed to prove that he was the father. Thus, instead of being burned as a whore, Judah gave Tamar her well-deserved position.