The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

Martin's Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise from 1825 depicts the most emotionally charged episode of Genesis—the moment when God drives the first humans from Eden into the world of labor, suffering, and death. For Martin, the expulsion was an opportunity to contrast the perfection of Eden—lush, golden, architecturally magnificent—with the harsh desolation of the world beyond, and to deploy his characteristic small figures against an overwhelming natural and divine scale. The 1825 date places this at the height of his celebrity following Belshazzar's Feast, when his interpretations of biblical narrative were the most widely discussed paintings in Britain. The expulsion subject carried cultural resonance beyond its theological content as an allegory of industrialization's disruption of traditional rural life, giving Martin's vision a contemporary dimension his audiences could feel.

The composition creates a powerful spatial divide between the luminous paradise and the dark, unwelcoming world beyond the gate. Martin's dramatic lighting effects heighten the emotional contrast between divine beauty and mortal exile.