In the left half of this horizonal painting, a winged angel gestures with arms raised over a man and woman being forced away from a bank of clouds set against a flat and barren landscape. The angel, man, and woman all have pale skin. The blond angel is dressed in a flowing white robe with coral-red fabric that hangs over one arm and billows behind. Kneeling in front of the angel, the woman wears a toga that appears to be made from an ivory-colored animal skin. Her long auburn-brown hair falls in waves around her shoulders, and she looks up to the sky, her mouth open. She kneels with her body facing our right, and she grasps the man’s right arm, closer to us. The man wears a chestnut-brown fur garment around his hips and he covers his face with his other hand. His brown curls and the animal skin blow in the wind. Gold and cream-white clouds envelop the angel to our left and give way to the shadowed landscape to our right. A dagger-like spear of light thrusts out of the clouds from above the angel, toward the man and woman.
   Thistles grow close to us in the foreground and, to our right, a striped serpent lifts its head and flicks out its tongue. A lion attacks two horses beyond the people, and in the sky above, an eagle swoops down on a heron. The navy-blue horizon line in the deep distance could indicate a body of water. Small patches of blue sky appear through breaks in the clouds.

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   By 1779, Benjamin West had conceived his life's "great work," intending to rebuild the Royal Chapel at Windsor Castle as a shrine to Revealed Religion. After sponsoring the elaborate scheme for two decades, George III abruptly canceled it in 1801. Though the overall project was abandoned, many individual paintings, including this nine–foot–long Expulsion, were completed.

   The Book of Genesis does not state how the first man and woman were expelled from Eden, but artists usually portray the Archangel Michael as the agent of the Lord's wrath. The sinners wear fur robes because God clothed them in "coats of skins" so that they could stand unashamed in his presence. The serpent, now cursed among creatures, slithers away on its belly to eat dust. The sharp beam of light overhead refers to the "flaming sword" in Genesis.

   West's Expulsion contains two motifs not found in Genesis or any traditional pictures of the theme: an eagle swoops upon a helpless bird, and a lion chases frightened horses. In general terms, such beasts of prey imply the destruction of harmony that resulted from Original Sin. Regardless of any further symbolism, West's artistic treatment foretells the new romantic style with its theatrical gestures, rich paint textures, and clashes of blinding light and shadowy darkness.

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