John Martin

Palestine

Auction Closed

January 26, 04:31 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property of a lady

John Martin

Hexham, Northumberland 1789 - 1854 Isle of Man

Palestine

Watercolor over traces of pencil, heightened with scratching out;

signed lower right: J. Martin. 1840

273 by 223 mm; 10⅝ by 8¾ in.

Sale, London, Sotheby's, 8 July 1982, lot 69;
where acquired by the present owner and her late husband

T. Balston, John Martin, His Life and Work, London 1947, p. 292, no. 39

Engraved:

by E. Goodall for Art and Song, 1867

Martin painted this peaceful watercolor in 1840 and in doing so seems to have amalgamated his visions of paradise with his watercolors of Richmond Park, in order to create his own personal utopia.

In 1867, over a decade after Martin's death, the printmaker Edward Goodall made a line engraving after this watercolor. That print was included in Art and Song, an elaborate book made up of poems illustrated with engravings taken from ‘masterpieces of the art of the nineteenth century.’ The volume contained five engravings after Martin and the present image was published under the spurious title Palestine, which relates to Thomas Moore's poem of that name, whose text it accompanied.

We are very grateful Michael Campbell for his help when cataloging this lot.