Untitled (Adam and Eve)
ObjectnummerM2025/082:005
TitelUntitled (Adam and Eve)
Vervaardiger Perle Hessing (artist)
BeschrijvingPerle Hessing, Untitled (Adam and Eve), Oil on canvas, signed and dated 1969.
The painting is a naive-style depiction of the biblical Garden of Eden. The work appears to reimagine the Eden story not simply as the moment of temptation or fall, but as an idyllic vision of innocence, harmony and abundance. The presence of children in the scene may symbolise purity and renewal. The animals, including birds, drawn from multiple continents, hint at a universal paradise beyond a specific geographic or cultural frame. Deer, an antelope, a leopard, a fox, a rabbit, a dove, a lizard - arranged around the tree, flattened in perspective, characteristic of Hessing's folk-art approach.
Self-taught, naive-style painter, Perle Hessing, draws on her Jewish faith, childhood memories, and personal story of survival. Born in 1908 in Poland, later settling in Australia in 1951, she began painting in her fifties, encouraged by Desiderius Orban (1884-1986), a Hungarian-Australian painter and art teacher. Her work is inspired by biblical stories from the Old Testament, folklore of shtetl life, Jewish rituals, as well as lived experience as a migrant. Her art is symbolic, blending narrative with personal and collective memory. Perle is the mother of artist Leonard Hessing (1931-2004), who was part of Australia's abstract expressionists. Keen to see how he might succeed in Europe, he ended up in London. She moved to the UK in circa 1973 where she died in 2001. In 2023, a collection of 24 paintings was generously donated to the Sydney Jewish Museum by her grandson, Theo Hessing.
The painting is a naive-style depiction of the biblical Garden of Eden. The work appears to reimagine the Eden story not simply as the moment of temptation or fall, but as an idyllic vision of innocence, harmony and abundance. The presence of children in the scene may symbolise purity and renewal. The animals, including birds, drawn from multiple continents, hint at a universal paradise beyond a specific geographic or cultural frame. Deer, an antelope, a leopard, a fox, a rabbit, a dove, a lizard - arranged around the tree, flattened in perspective, characteristic of Hessing's folk-art approach.
Self-taught, naive-style painter, Perle Hessing, draws on her Jewish faith, childhood memories, and personal story of survival. Born in 1908 in Poland, later settling in Australia in 1951, she began painting in her fifties, encouraged by Desiderius Orban (1884-1986), a Hungarian-Australian painter and art teacher. Her work is inspired by biblical stories from the Old Testament, folklore of shtetl life, Jewish rituals, as well as lived experience as a migrant. Her art is symbolic, blending narrative with personal and collective memory. Perle is the mother of artist Leonard Hessing (1931-2004), who was part of Australia's abstract expressionists. Keen to see how he might succeed in Europe, he ended up in London. She moved to the UK in circa 1973 where she died in 2001. In 2023, a collection of 24 paintings was generously donated to the Sydney Jewish Museum by her grandson, Theo Hessing.
Datum 1969
OnderwerpJewish life, Jewish artists, , family life
Objectnaampaintings
Formaat
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum collection, donated by Theo Hessing.
In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this archival project.