Eve

"Eve," shows a nude full-length figure in a rocky, barren landscape setting. Fein identified the figure as "Eve" in the title but she holds a pomegranate, attribute of the Greek maiden Persephonê who was abducted by Pluto, the god of the underworld. Persephonê was rescued by her mother, Demeter, but because she ate a pomegranate seed while in Hades she was doomed to return for a third of the year. Persephonê's return to Hades turned the Earth cold and killed off the harvest, denoting Demeter's mourning. In Fein's work, she is making an analogy between the tragedy of the Second World War and the Greek myth. As an explicit reference, at the horizon on the left, a city is shown in flames. She started the painting in Milwaukee and completed it in Ajijic, Mexico after leaving the US ill and in a state of anxiety over the fate of her young husband and many friends serving in the army. In this sense, the female figure could represent Fein but it could also be an allegorical figure of peace.