John Martin

1789 - 1854 • English • Painter • Romantic

"Enough ... is stated in the Old Testament, and by Herodotus ... and subsequent ancient historians, to afford sufficient materials to a Painter of genius for a work of magnifi,cent object and effect; a work, such as Mr. Martin here surprises us with, of mingled Poetry, Fiction, and Fact. " - Robert Hunt, 1819

Martin remained outside of and violently opposed to the art establishment, which also kept him at bay. Though he could not exhibit under the aegis of the Royal Academy, he did so on his own, and with huge popular and financial success: The quotation above appeared in a review in The Examiner of London when Martin showed his Fall of Babylon in 1819. When he exhibited Belshazzar's Feast (1821) at the British Institution, the audience was so great and enthusiastic that the exhibit had to be extended for three weeks. Later, it attracted 5,000 paying visitors when it was shown privately. Martin wrote pamphlets that described the hordes of people, the buildings, and even the heights of the great mountains in his paintings. He also made money from selling PRINTS. His pictures were melodramatic, cataclysmic, often biblical fantasies, full of SUBLIME terror, anticipating the movies of Cecil B. De Mille, and though academicians found them vulgar, he was extremely influential, not only with the public, but among American landscape artists as well.