Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve, unfinished oil painting created by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt in 1917–18, shortly before he died. Though in some ways, this work seems to be a relic from the perfumed decadence of Vienna’s fin-de-siècle, it also departs from most of Klimt’s work in noticeable ways.

Adam and Eve is only the second biblical subject addressed by Klimt, and his depiction of Eve as a woman with loose blonde hair also differs from his other portrayals of women. As the biblical generators of human life, Adam and Eve are curiously lethargic. The abundant flora and fauna of the Garden of Eden is represented by a few flowers at Eve’s feet and the skin of a dead leopard, which also serves to suggest Eve’s sensuality. Adam sleeps and is barely distinguishable from the dark background. Eve, the dominant figure, is awake, pink, and glowing with touches of gold. The painting appears to depict the moment in which Eve was created from the rib of the sleeping Adam.

The incomplete state of this painting allows us to see Klimt’s use of drawing in the creation of his composition. In Adam and Eve, Adam appears to represent night and Eve the radiant day, a reversal of standard iconography. This suggests that Klimt was beginning to embrace a more modern view of sexuality.