Huntington Buys John Martin's "City of God"

British Romantic artist John Martin (1789–1854) is having a moment locally. The Getty Museum recently completed purchase of a Martin watercolor, and now the Huntington has announced acquisition of City of God, a c. 1850 oil painting by the artist. Measuring 26 inches across, it was auctioned at Sotheby's London in 2016 for £137,000.

Though dismissed by Thomas Lawrence, John Constable, and John Ruskin, Martin was a immensely popular artist whose reputation exceeded Turner's for a time. It was Martin more than any visual artist who epitomized the "sublime." His speciality was apocalyptic history imagined with lurid skies, a cinematic perspective, and a fantasy/sci-fi edge. These elements resonated with British-born American Thomas Cole, who transmitted them to the Hudson River School.

By the early 20th century, however, Martin was virtually forgotten. In 1935 his monumental Judgment Triptych (now at the Tate Gallery) sold for a mere £7.  Martin continued to have an influence on on filmmakers, including D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, Ray Harryhausen, Peter Jackson, and George Lucas. (There's your narrative art.)

John Martin, Judgment Triptych (1851-53): The Last Judgment, The Plains of Heaven, The Great Day of His Wrath. Tate Gallery, London

City of God is based on the Book of Revelation, which tells of a city "that has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light." It's one of a group of modest-scaled paintings related to the Judgment Triptych. In City of God Martin was trying out ideas for the triptych's The Plains of Heaven. But the ruddy sky and ominous rock formation also recall The Great Day of His Wrath.

City of God was apparently left unfinished. Another hand, maybe one of Martin's artist-sons, may have supplied the figures and foliage at lower right.

In recent years the Huntington has added paintings by Henry Fuseli and David Wilkie. Martin was the most important British Romantic missing from the collection. City of God is now on view in the Huntington Art Gallery, second floor.