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If you haven’t read Paradise Lost; the basic plot is the story of Adam and Eve and the lesson is that all Christians should be miserable until they die, which Milton definitely was. The thing about Paradise Lost is that it doesn’t say that Eve shouldn’t give in to Satan’s temptation, that sh*t is humanity’s fate. While Jan Brueghel the Elder and basically every other artist pin the blame on Eve, Cole takes a more Miltonic, misanthropic angle. Look how Adam isn’t blaming Eve, see how he isn’t angry or violent? Everybody here is just sad, holding each other’s hand. Congrats Adam, you’re baseline decent!
But this painting isn’t really about the people; misanthropy remember? Cole took the highly acceptable subject of the Fall and then mostly ignored the humans, putting approximately three civilizations worth of self loathing into the landscape. This is true melodrama, those ravaged trees, the volcano, and the wolf protecting her venison from a vulture directly foil Eden’s endless golden hour and the swans frolicking in a pond.
Cole said that this was meant to be a “higher” form of landscape painting, and we’re not sure if he meant better or like, higher. Because yeah, landscape painting was the bottom of the European art totem but it was the only thing Americans would buy, and Cole wanted to be taken seriously as much as he wanted to eat. But also, there’s some pretty wild stuff going on. Those snow-covered mountains look way too steep to hold that snow, the volcano is more Mordor than Mauna Loa, and the swan pond waterfall is falling in the wrong direction.
Obviously this painting isn’t literally faithful to the American landscape. But, this is definitely an American scene. Where else would you see two naked adults running off into a storm? Now we have an entire desert festival about it!
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Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (or Expulsion from Paradise) was painted in 1828 by English-born American painter Thomas Cole. It belongs to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and is on display in their Waleska Evans James Gallery (Gallery 236). This landscape painting exemplifies the style of the Hudson River School, a group of American landscape painters that Thomas Cole is credited with founding. On the lower left part of the cliff, Cole signed his name as "T Cole".
Check out the full Wikipedia article about Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Cole)
Wow, what an incredible piece illustrating what separation from God looks like. To be in God, there is beauty, joy, and hope. To be separate from God will lead to death, destruction, and misery. The artist defiantly captures these two vast dichotomies.
This piece has such a strong sense of what is before and after. Obviously, as Christians, we know what the story is about, but this gives such a harsh and also delicate display of what it could very well have been like. The left side is so eery but so intensely captivating as the light from the sun on the right shines into it. The right side is so warm and whimsical like it's supposed to feel fluffy almost, and incredibly inviting. This piece is something so captivating about each side!