The Garden of Eden

Artist Izaac van Oosten (Flemish, 1613-1661)

Place of OriginBelgium, Flanders

Dateabout 1655-1661

DimensionsPainting (H x W): 22 3/4 × 34 3/4 in. (57.8 × 88.3 cm)
Frame (H x W x D): 30 × 42 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (76.2 × 107.6 × 3.8 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1959.1

Not on View

Label TextBased on a popular composition by Jan Brueghel the Elder (see his Landscape with a Fishing Village nearby), this painting features more than 100 exotic birds and animals—how many can you identify? The Garden of Eden (look for Adam and Eve) provided an appropriate setting for artists to show a variety of animals not normally found together—for example, the South American Humboldt penguin next to the European mute swans. The 16th and 17th centuries were a period of intense interest in natural history, spurred by the discoveries of European traders and explorers in Asia, the Americas, and Africa. Many aristocrats and wealthy merchants assembled collections of natural “curiosities” from around the world—including seashells, gems and minerals, flowers, and live or stuffed birds and animals. Nearly all of the creatures in this painting are recognizable as specific species, suggesting that examples were available to artists in the Netherlands, whether in menageries, book and print illustrations, or as taxidermy.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 3, no. 3, Summer 1960, p. 62, repr.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," July-Sept. 1960, Art Quarterly, vol. XXIII, Winter, 1960, p. 399.

Kauffmann, C.M., Victoria and Albert Museum: Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800, London, 1973, p. 50.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 118, pl. 91.

"Exhibitions: Reopening of the Gallery of European and American Art," The News, Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri-Columbia, no. 6, Fall 1986, repr.

In the Beginning...: The Creation According to Genesis, New York, 1996, p. 62, repr. pp. 20-21 (col. det.), 23 (col. det.) 44 (col. det.) and 61 (col.).

Reich, Paula, Rare and Wondrous: Birds in Art and Culture, 1620-1820, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2021, p.10-11 [exh. catalogue].

Exhibition HistoryHamilton, Ontario, Art Gallery, Man and Nature: A View of the Seventeenth Century, 1980, no. 28, p. 48, repr. p. 81.

Columbia, University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology, Reopening of European and American Gallery, 1986-1987. [no cat.].

Toledo Museum of Art, For the Birds, April 13-October 14, 2012.