Expulsion of Adam and Eve
1884
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1884
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Expulsion of Adam and Eve is a 1884 unspecified by John Faed, a British Romanticism work, depicting Scotland, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see Adam and Eve being pushed out of a bright garden by an angel with a sword, while a snake slithers in the shadows. Most artists show the angel blocking the gate, but here he’s walking them away—like a guide, not a guard. The snake isn’t coiled in a tree; it’s just there, almost unnoticed. Faed read *Paradise Lost* closely, so the scene feels quieter, more like a sad goodbye than a punishment. If you like this mood, look up the subject *scotland, mod euro* for more paintings with this kind of storytelling.
John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) was the principal literary source for John Faed's depiction of the expulsion of Adam and Eve. The archangel Michael directs the couple away from the lush gardens and heavenly radiance of Eden, while Satan in the form of a snake appears in the right foreground. In most representations of the subject, Michael guards the gates of Paradise with a fiery sword, as prescribed in both Genesis and Paradise Lost . Faed, on the other hand, has him brandishing a compass, an instrument traditionally employed by God the Father in his act of creating the world.
A renewed interest in religious art in mid-19th-century Britain led John Faed to visit Palestine in 1857.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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