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Hiram Powers, Eve Tempted, modeled 1842, plaster, 70 1⁄4 x 22 1⁄8 x 21 1⁄2 in. (178.4 x 56.2 x 54.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson, 1968.155.7
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Eve Tempted
- Artist
- Date
- modeled 1842
- Location
- Dimensions
- 70 1⁄4 x 22 1⁄8 x 21 1⁄2 in. (178.4 x 56.2 x 54.6 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- plaster
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Figure
- Animal — reptile — snake
- Study — sculpture model
- State of being — evil — temptation
- Religion — Old Testament — Eve
- Religion — Old Testament — Genesis
- Object Number
- 1968.155.7
Artwork Description
Eve Tempted was Hiram Powers’s first full-length ideal statue. It shows Eve contemplating an apple in her hand while a serpent lingers at her side. American audiences in the nineteenth century felt that statues and paintings of nude figures were scandalous, but Powers maintained that “clothing would be preposterous, for [Eve] was naked only after she had fallen.” Her pensive expression anticipates the consequences of her actions, which the artist described in his later piece, Eve Disconsolate.
Luce Object Quote
“. . . as for her nudity---she does not appear to know that she is so.” The artist, quoted in April Kingsley, Hiram Powers’ Paradise Lost, Exhibition Catalogue, 1985