The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

1791, retouched 1803

Benjamin West (British, born United States, 1738–1820)

This tumultuous scene shows Adam and Eve, the first man and woman in the Hebrew Bible, being driven out of the Garden of Eden. Benjamin West created it as a preparatory sketch for one of several large paintings intended for a chapel in Windsor Castle, an ancient seat of the British monarchy that was undergoing restoration in the late 18th century. West worked on the project for two decades, but King George III abandoned plans for the chapel’s decoration and the paintings were never installed.

One of the earliest American artists to achieve international renown, West spent much of his career in London. There, he served as a teacher and mentor to a generation of younger American artists who trained abroad, including Rembrandt Peale and Thomas Sully.

Status: On View, Gallery 169
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Benjamin West
Title: The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise
Place: England (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1791
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed: B West 1791. / retouched. 1803 (in clouds)
Dimensions: 48.6 × 72.9 cm (19 1/8 × 28 11/16 in.)
Credit Line: George F. Harding Collection
Reference Number: 1984.175
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/102227/manifest.json

“Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy, Etc.,” in Public Characters of 1805 (London, 1805), p. 566.
“Biographical Sketch of Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy, Etc., Etc.” Universal Magazine 3 (June, 1805), p. 530.
Joel Barlow, The Columbiad: A Poem (Philadelphia, 1807), p. 435 n. 45 (list of West’s works).
“A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq.,” La Belle Assemblée, or Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine 4 (1808), suppl., p. 17.
John Galt, The Life, Studies, and Works of Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy of London, vol. 2 (London, 1820), p. 229.
Jerry D. Meyer, “Benjamin West’s Chapel of Revealed Religion: A Study in Eighteenth-Century Religious Art,” Art Bulletin 57 (1975), p. 264.
John Dillenberger, Benjamin West: The Context of His Life’s Work with Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter (San Antonio, Texas, 1977), pp. 62, 174, 196, 201, 206, 214, fig. 36.
Nancy L. Pressly, Revealed Religion: Benjamin West’s Commissions for Windsor Castle and Fonthill Abbey, exh. cat. (San Antonio Museum of Art, 1983), under no. 7.
Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West (New Haven and London, 1986), pp. 286–87, no. 233, ill., p. 581.
Cynthia J. Mills in Ellen Miles, American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art: Systematic Catalogue (Washington, D.C., 1995), pp. 335–36, fig. 1.
Malcolm Warner in Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1996), pp. 301–05, ill.

London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1805, no. 86.
London, West’s Gallery, 1822, no. 73.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Thomas B. Clarke Collection of American Pictures, 1891, no. 192.
Chicago, World’s Columbian Exposition, Exhibit of Private Collections, 1893, no. 2861b.
New York, Brooklyn Museum, Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Benjamin West and of Engravings Representing His Work, 1922, no. 23.

Benjamin West (d. 1820); by descent to his sons, Raphael Lamar West and Benjamin West Jr.; sold Robins, London, May 22–25, 1829, no. 88, to Hayes for 43 gns [von Erffa and Staley 1986, p. 286, no. 233]. Possibly Henry Graves and Son, London [information on mount of a photograph at the Frick Art Reference Library]. Samuel Putnam Avery, New York; sold by Avery to Thomas B. Clarke, New York, by 1891; sold American Art Galleries, New York, February 14–18, 1899, no. 355, to Harry W. Watrous for $200 [von Erffa and Staley 1986, p. 286, no. 233]; Harry W. Watrous to at least 1922 [lent by him to the Brooklyn Museum exhibition 1922]; sold by Watrous to M. A. Newhouse and Son, St. Louis [letter of 15 April, 1994 from Joan Pope of Newhourse Galleries in curatorial file]; sold by Newhouse to George F. Harding, Jr. (d. 1939), Chicago, 1926; bequeathed to the George F. Harding Museum, Chicago; transferred to the Art Institute, 1982.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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