It is believed that the Apple was the forbidden fruit of temptation in the Garden of Eden. The story of the Apple involves the Biblical Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. Adam and Eve were created pure and innocent. They had the right of choice since they could think independently, but they were forbidden to try the fruits from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, it was a time when the Serpent Tempter arrived and convinced Eve to try the special fruit. That is when the first people gave in to Temptation. After the fall from grace, Eve blamed the Serpent, and Adam blamed Eve. God chased the sinners from Paradise.

“There are many apples on the Tree of Success, but if you conquered New York City, you won the Big Apple." That is how the symbol of success could be introduced to people arriving to the New World in the past centuries.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants were tempted to try that “Apple”, escaping from wars and politics in Europe and the Old World.

In the painting, we see the panorama of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty from the point of Ellis Island where the immigrants initially arrived.

"The Big Apple" is a nickname for New York City. It was first popularized in the 1920s by John J. Fitz Gerald, a sportswriter for the New York Morning Telegraph. Being a frequent visitor to the horse races, the novelist John Fitzgerald heard from one of the jockeys a phrase: “Horses love apples, and the races in New York - it’s the Big Apple.”

(Another version: Fitz Gerald reportedly first heard "The Big Apple" used to describe New York's racetracks by two African American stable hands at the New Orleans Fair Grounds.)