Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00001440The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise
Inscriptions
Inscribed: B West 1791. / retouched. 1803 (in clouds)
Provenance
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.
Exhibition history
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.
Publications
“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.
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Benjamin West (American, active England, 1738-1820)
- Date
- 1791, retouched 1803
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 48.6 × 72.9 cm (19 1/8 × 28 11/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- oil on canvas
- Style
- 18th Century
- Place
- England
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- George F. Harding Collection
- Accession no.
- 1984.175
More by Benjamin West in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00001440
Powered by Art Trackers