Gustave Doré (1832-1883) was one of the most important illustrators of the 19th century. Throughout his career he contributed to well-known Paris journals and newspapers; and his first work exhibited in the Salon was an illustration. However, Doré was anxious to gain recognition for his talents as a painter and, later in life, as a sculptor. In 1851 he entered his first painting in the Paris Salon and his first sculpture was not entered until 1877. Like his illustrations and paintings, Doré's sculpture primarily depicted religious subjects. Though the critics did not immediately recognize Doré as a three-dimensional artist, the response to his sculpture was positive.

The present model was originally exhibited in the Salon of 1879 in plaster. The initial critical response compared the bronze to an illustration, based on its allegorical quality. It is believed that the subject, a Negro mother protecting her child from a serpent, depicts the biblical story of the outcast Hagar with the infant Ishmael.