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Eve Disconsolate
modeled 1855-1861
Hiram Powers
Born: Woodstock, Vermont 1805
Died: Florence, Italy 1873
plaster
74 x 20 x 22 in. (188.0 x 50.8 x 55.9 cm)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson
1968.155.6
Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center
“I aimed at nobleness of form and womanly dignity of expression. She is forlorn, but does not quite despair, for she looks up imploringly. She accuses the serpent with one hand and herself most with the other. The serpent retires for Eve repents---she now resists evil.” Hiram Powers, 1871, in Chicago Times, 1876
Eve Disconsolate was also known as “Paradise Lost” and “Eve after the Fall” and depicts Eve in the moment after she succumbs to temptation. Hiram Powers created this figure because he was not completely satisfied with his earlier statue Eve Tempted, which he felt did not adequately convey the “expression of bewilderment, distress, and remorse, which must have appeared on the face . . . of Eve.” Powers often created different versions of a statue for different clients, and the bust of Eve Disconsolate was modeled several years before the full-length statue was completed.
For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.
Keywords
Animal - reptile - snake
Religion - Old Testament - Eve
Religion - Old Testament - Genesis
State of being - evil - sin
Study - sculpture model
sculpture
plaster
About Hiram Powers
Born: Woodstock, Vermont 1805 Died: Florence, Italy 1873
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