id: 151539 accession number: 1983.84 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1983.84 updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:52.408000 Paradise Lost: The Creation of Light, 1824, published 1825. John Martin (British, 1789–1854). Mezzotint; platemark: 25.3 x 35.2 cm (9 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.); sheet: 26.8 x 36.8 cm (10 9/16 x 14 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection 1983.84 title: Paradise Lost: The Creation of Light title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1824, published 1825 creation date earliest: 1824 creation date latest: 1824 current location: creditline: Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection copyright: --- culture: England, 19th century technique: mezzotint department: Prints collection: PR - Mezzotint type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Campbell-Wees 41 --- CREATORS * John Martin (British, 1789–1854) - artist Born in Northumberland, John Martin began his career as a coach and ceramics painter before exhibiting oil paintings at the Royal Academy, London. His first critical success, Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion (1812, Saint Louis Art Museum), introduced his penchant for dramatic compositions with diminutive figures in vast and often threatening landscapes. Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gideon (1816, United Grand Lodge of England) and Belshazzar's Feast (1821, private collection) combined meticulous biblical and archaeological research with imaginative pictorial narrative and sensational architectural perspective to create a unique genre of the apocalyptic sublime. Martin was an inveterate self-promoter, and in an effort to broaden his commercial support in the 1820s he designed and engraved nearly a hundred mezzotint illustrations to the Bible and to Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), thus becoming one of the principal exponents and arguably the most accomplished practitioner of that printmaking technique in the nineteenth century. A number of unrealized engineering schemes that were as grandiose as the subjects of many of his most imposing pictures preoccupied Martin in the 1830s and 1840s, diverting much of his energy from his art. These plans included a water system and sewage disposal plan for the city of London. In his final years he returned to the cataclysmic inspiration of his middle period and painted a magnificent trilogy of Last Judgment pictures now in the Tate Gallery, London. --- measurements: Platemark: 25.3 x 35.2 cm (9 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.); Sheet: 26.8 x 36.8 cm (10 9/16 x 14 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1983 opening date: 1984-02-22T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984). title: Two Hundred Years of British Prints opening date: 1984-10-09T04:00:00 Two Hundred Years of British Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 9, 1984-February 3, 1985). title: The Birth and Flowering of British Romantic Art opening date: 1990-05-01T04:00:00 The Birth and Flowering of British Romantic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 1-July 22, 1990). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1983.84/1983.84_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1983.84/1983.84_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1983.84/1983.84_full.tif