American Art Collaborative

Eve Disconsolate was also known as “Paradise Lost” and “Eve after the Fall” and depicts Eve in the moment after she succumbs to temptation. Hiram Powers created this figure because he was not completely satisfied with his earlier statue Eve Tempted, which he felt did not adequately convey the “expression of bewilderment, distress, and remorse, which must have appeared on the face . . . of Eve.” Powers often created different versions of a statue for different clients, and the bust of Eve Disconsolate was modeled several years before the full-length statue was completed
“I aimed at nobleness of form and womanly dignity of expression. She is forlorn, but does not quite despair, for she looks up imploringly. She accuses the serpent with one hand and herself most with the other. The serpent retires for Eve repents---she now resists evil.” Hiram Powers, 1871, in Chicago Times, 187