John Martin: Religious Art at its Best

John Martin was a 19th century English painter who gained fame through his dramatic paintings of biblical events. Born on the 19^th of July 1789, John Martin was originally apprenticed to be a heraldic painter for coaches (One who paints coats of arms on the horse drawn carriages of the rich), his apprenticeship was soon cancelled and he moved to London under the tutorship of the Italian painter Bonifacio Musso where he earned his living teaching drawing and painting watercolours and on china and glass. He sold his first major painting, Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion (see below) in 1812 at the age of 23 which has since been hailed as "The most famous of the British romantic works...;"; following his success he painted (and printed) many more works - as well as notably being commissioned by a publisher to illustrate John Milton's Paradise Lost in 1823 - until, on the 17^th of February 1854 he died at 64 years old - while painting - having suffered an attack of paralysis.

Below is a collection of his best and most famous religious works: