Composition Study for "The Redemption," from the mural series "Great Women of the Bible," First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, PA

This work is a study for Oakley’s last mural series, Great Women of the Bible, commissioned by the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown. Produced over a four-year period from 1945 to 1949 when she was in her seventies, the work was created in collaboration with Edith Emerson. At different moments in her career, Oakley revisited the image of Eve kneeling at the feet of Mary in heaven. Eve, whose “original sin” caused mankind to fall from Paradise, is redeemed by Mary, who brings Jesus—the savior of humanity—into the world. That Mary brings Eve to heaven is the signal that the sins of all women and men can be absolved. Like many feminist thinkers of her generation, Oakley was opposed to the mainstream Christian notion that Eve, and by extension all women, were to blame for the sins of mankind.Here, to the left of the Angel of Judgment, Eve takes the forbidden fruit from the serpent in the Garden of Eden. She is accompanied by a leopard, a symbol of lust. At right, Eve sits at the feet of Mary in heaven, redeemed for her sins. In this preparatory study, Oakley depicts the leopard eyeing the serpent in the tree. She changed this charming naturalistic feature and in the final mural the leopard looks straight ahead. Great Women of the Bible is Oakley’s only commission for a church that has survived in its original location; the murals have been maintained in excellent condition for nearly seventy years and over one hundred studies are preserved in the collection of the La Salle University Art Museum.