Mounts Adam and Eve, 1872
Oil on canvas, 12 1/8 x 20 1/8"
Gift of Barbara B. Millhouse, 1970.2.1

Writing in 1901, the acerbic critic Sadakichi Hartmann summed up Cropsey's fall from grace within New York art circles: "I am well aware that his pictures have, of late, been the laughing stock at the Academy exhibitions." Cropsey, like so many aging members of the National Academy of Design, refused to update his oeuvre and continued to paint in the pre-Civil War tradition of the Hudson River School.  Hartmann, however, defended Cropsey's reputation and reminded his viewers that all fashion is fleeting, and predicted - quite accurately - the day when "the impressionists will also be old fogies."  A century later, Mounts Adam and Eve is recognized as a masterwork, rich in symbolism.  The path of the water flowing toward the far distance reminds us of the voyage of life as surely as Hartmann's writings.