Tamar, disguised as a prostitute, offers sex to her unsuspecting father-in-law Judah. He has been recently widowed, and shows no reluctance. This painting has been attributed to a number of painters, including Gerbrand van den Eeckhout and Aert van der Gelder. The subject of Tamar and Judah was popular among Protestant painters of the time. Each of the two people depicted here is lost in thought.
They do not communicate with each other. Neither shows joy or happiness. Tamar looks outwards towards the viewer, with whom she seeks to communicate. As far as she is concerned, the necessary deed is done. Despite the sex he has just had, Judah shows no emotion.
His expression is introspective, joyless. Judah approaches Tamar who stands waiting for him on the road. This lithograph was produced in the same year that Chagall designed the stained glass windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. The windows depict the twelve tribes of Israel, suggesting that Chagall at this time was preoccupied with Jewish biblical history, and saw the encounter between Tamar and Judah as a pivotal moment in the story of the Jewish people.
The staff and ring she holds signal that she has been successful in her mission to seduce Judah. The man and woman Tamar and Judah in the background of the engraving suggest that coitus has already occurred -see also the neo-Latin inscription at the bottom of the image.
Most images of this story show Tamar and Judah together, and in fact there is a small picture of them together at the back of the main figure. This engraving is unusual in that it shows Tamar Thamar standing alone. She has accomplished her mission and can now await the birth of her child β or rather children, since she will bear twin sons to Judah.
