The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
A Man Playing a Harp with other Figures beside a Lake
1820
Location: not on view
Description
Martin is best known for his grandiose, apocalyptic visions of approaching doom, drawn from the Bible or mythology. But these two landscapes, created as pendants, reveal a less known aspect of his work. Martin executed a number of small landscape studies in a distinctive stippled technique, allowing him to render extraordinary detail. The mood of these landscapes is subdued; classical figures recline and play music beside a tranquil lake. However, their anthropomorphic trees and the suggestion of the vastness of the surrounding landscape foreshadow what was to become Martin’s central theme: the smallness and helplessness of man against the infinite powers of the universe.- Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 15-November 14, 2004).Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 8/15/04-11/14/04. "Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century". No exhibition catalogue.
- {{cite web|title=A Man Playing a Harp with other Figures beside a Lake|url=false|author=John Martin|year=1820|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.39