id: 146416 accession number: 1972.119 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.119 updated: Noah: The Eve of the Deluge, 1848. John Linnell (British, 1792–1882). Oil on canvas; framed: 168.5 x 242.5 x 9.5 cm (66 5/16 x 95 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.); unframed: 146 x 221 cm (57 1/2 x 87 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1972.119 title: Noah: The Eve of the Deluge title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1848 creation date earliest: 1848 creation date latest: 1848 current location: 203B British Painting and Decorative Arts creditline: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund copyright: --- culture: England, 19th century technique: oil on canvas department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * John Linnell (British, 1792–1882) - artist The precocious son of a Bloomsbury frame maker, John Linnell entered the Royal Academy schools in 1805 at the same time that he began studying with influential watercolor painter and drawing master John Varley (1778-1842). Under Varley's tutelage, but primarily in the company of fellow student William Mulready (1786-1863), Linnell mastered plein-air landscape painting. His studies at the Kensington gravel pits (ca. 1812) and other locales in and around London are remarkable for the intensity and novelty of their naturalistic observation. From 1807 Linnell was a regular contributor of landscape and portrait paintings at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Society of Painters in Watercolours. His conversion to the Baptist faith in 1811 intensified his conviction that meticulous landscape realism was a moral act pursued as a duty to God's creation. Primarily for financial reasons, Linnell painted his first miniature portrait in 1816, after which portraiture in all media tended to dominate his professional production for several decades. In 1818 he befriended William Blake (1757-1827), virtually supporting that irascible genius during his last years with important commissions, including The Book of Job engravings and the 102 watercolor illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy. Linnell's commitment to landscape painting as a spiritual art profoundly influenced the visionary early work of his pupil and future son-in-law, Samuel Palmer (1805-1881). In the 1840s, but especially after 1851, when he moved his family to Redhill in Surrey, Linnell resumed landscape painting. Many of his later pictures had literal or implied religious subject matter, and although they were not always successful commercially, they established Linnell as one of the masters of the pastoral landscape tradition in the nineteenth century. --- measurements: Framed: 168.5 x 242.5 x 9.5 cm (66 5/16 x 95 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 146 x 221 cm (57 1/2 x 87 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower right: j. linnell / 1848 translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1972 opening date: 1973-02-27T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973). title: Landscape of the Bible: Sacred Scenes in European Master Paintings opening date: 2000-09-05T00:00:00 Landscape of the Bible: Sacred Scenes in European Master Paintings. Israel Museum, 91710 Jerusalem, Israel (organizer) (September 5, 2000-January 31, 2001). title: British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020) opening date: 2020-06-30T04:00:00 British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Royal Academy, London, United Kingdom (1848). * Mechanic's Institute, Bradford, England (1873). * Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Royal Academy, London, United Kingdom (1883). --- PROVENANCE Sold to Joseph Gillott [1799-1872], Birmingham, United Kingdom, May 1847, before the work was completed. date: 1847-1872 footnotes: citations: (Christie's, London, United Kingdom, April 19-20 and 26-27, and May 3-4, 1872, sale, lot 137, sold to J. Rhodes for Angus, 1st Lord Holden) date: 1872 footnotes: citations: Angus 1st Lord Holden [1833-1912], Nun Appleton House, Bolton Percy, England date: 1872-1913 footnotes: citations: (Christie's, London, United Kingdom, July 18, 1913, Holden Sale, lot 64, sold to Bale. Mrs. C. Hunter) date: 1913 footnotes: citations: (Sotheby's, London Belgravia sale, February 22, 1972, lot 98, sold to Jeremy Maas, with Herner Wengraf, London) date: 1972 footnotes: citations: (Herner Wengraf, London, United Kingdom, 1972, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 1972 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1972- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Linnell was an extremely versatile artist who worked in oils and watercolors, painted miniatures on ivory, and was skilled as an engraver. digital description: wall description: This painting powerfully illustrates changes in taste over time. Before it was even completed, the painting was purchased for the considerable sum of £1,000 by a newly wealthy industrialist who admired John Linnell’s modern approach to religious subjects. In 1913, however, the painting was sold at auction for only £130. Victorian painting had fallen out of favor among collectors who did not appreciate Linnell’s hotly colored landscapes that combined biblical stories and poetry (in this case Milton’s Paradise Lost) with close study of the English landscape. Linnell was also known for financially supporting the destitute and elderly William Blake, whose mesmerizing painting of Saint Matthew is in the museum's collection. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 208 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n228 Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 399-401, Vol. II, no. 138 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1972.119/1972.119_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1972.119/1972.119_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1972.119/1972.119_full.tif