Adam's First Sight of Eve

Martin's Adam's First Sight of Eve from around 1812 treats the Miltonic subject of the moment in Paradise Lost when Adam first sees Eve, approaching through the Garden of Eden in perfect beauty. The subject was among the earliest treatments of Miltonic narrative in Martin's career, painted in the same year as his breakthrough Sadak, and it established the visual approach to Paradise that he would develop more fully in his later Miltonic trilogy. The Garden of Eden setting—lush, golden, architecturally magnificent—gave Martin his first sustained opportunity to depict perfection rather than destruction, and the two tiny human figures lost in the overwhelming beauty of Paradise established the scale relationship between human and divine that would characterize all his major works. The Miltonic subject placed him within the Romantic tradition of engagement with England's greatest epic poet.

The panoramic Paradise setting creates a sense of overwhelming natural beauty within which the tiny figures of Adam and Eve are almost lost. Martin's characteristic handling of dramatic lighting effects creates an atmosphere of primal wonder.