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19 BLAKE THE TEMPTATION AND FALL OF E.jpg
19_Blake_The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808 William BlakeEnglish, 1757–1827The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808Watercolor on paper19 5/8 x 15 1/4 in. (49.7 x 38.7 cm)Gift by Subscription, 1890, 1890 90.99Living in a time he viewed as excessively confused and materialistic, Blake expressed his mystical, theological, and philosophical beliefs in visionary poetry, prints, and paintings. This watercolor illustrating a scene from John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost is one of a set commissioned by Blake’s loyal patron Thomas Butts. In the Bible, Adam and Eve were forbidden by God to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Like Milton, Blake specifically identifies the Fall of Man with the moment when Eve succumbs to temptation and takes the fruit from the mouth of the evil serpent. The sky is rent by lightning and the tree covered with thorns, as Blake expresses Milton’s words: “Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat / Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe / That all was lost.”
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