Esther Accuses Haman 

Gustave Dore made this engraving, Esther Accuses Haman, in nineteenth-century France, illustrating a scene from the Hebrew Bible. Dore was a very successful commercial artist who, despite his popularity, was never fully accepted into the established French art world. This image shows Queen Esther revealing to her husband, King Ahasuerus, that Haman, the King's advisor, has plotted to kill her and all of the Jewish people. Dore's illustration captures the drama of the moment: Haman is caught off guard, cowering at the table, as Esther fearlessly points her finger at him. The architecture and the clothing shown in the image are not historically accurate. Instead, they reflect the orientalist fantasies of the artist and his audience. Dore's choice to depict this scene speaks to the growing acceptance of Jewish people in French society at the time, and the potential for art to challenge existing social norms. To understand Dore's work better, we can look at popular literature and historical accounts of Jewish life in nineteenth-century France. Studying the institutions that supported artists like Dore, such as publishing houses and art galleries, helps us understand how the social conditions of the time influenced his artistic production.