Ode to Eve

Imagine a mother
giving birth
to a child
who doesn't know
she's giving birth
to a child
She thinks she's dying
but she's bringing life
to a world
and prolonging life in that world.







About the painting:
Eve Overcome by Remorse, 1887
Etching on Japan paper, 13 1/8 x 18 7/8 in.

About the painter:
Anna Massey Lea was brought up in Philadelphia but received most of her training in Europe, where she took private classes from male tutors in Florence, Dresden, Paris, and London, as women were barred from the most prestigious academies. She settled in London in 1870 and in 1877 married her teacher, the painting conservator and critic Henry Merritt, who died three months later. She was a prolific portraitist but also tried her hand at history painting, which often required depictions of the nude figure.