Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise
18th–19th century
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 2 15/16 x 2 15/16 in. (7.5 x 7.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.204
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise*, a delicate etching by Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, a prominent French artist, diplomat, and archaeologist active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Created during this transitional period, the work measures just under 3 inches square, showcasing Denon's mastery of the etching technique—an intaglio printmaking method where acid bites into a metal plate to create intricate lines. This allowed for exquisite detail in small formats, making such prints ideal for collectors and study. Denon, who later became the first director of the Louvre und...
About the Artist
baron Dominique Vivant Denon · 1747–1825
Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon (1747–1825), was a multifaceted French artist, diplomat, and archaeologist whose life bridged the Ancien Régime, Revolution, and Napoleonic Empire. Born on January 4, 1747, in Givry near Chalon-sur-Saône to a family of minor nobility originally surnamed "de Non," he was sent to Paris at eighteen to study law. Instead, he pursued art, studying painting under Noël Hallé...