John Martin: Apocalypse Now!

John Martin was a 19th century artist of apocalyptic subjects, such as The Deluge, Macbeth, and The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This book written by Barbara Morden, first published in 2010 and reprinted in 2015 and 2019, is a careful review of Martin's oeuvre, a brief biography (1789-1854), and then an extensive review of his development as a renowned artist and his propensity of depicting biblical disasters and the darker side of grandiose events such as Queen Victoria's Coronation. I'll return to this painting shortly. The book is 120 pages long, and includes nearly 15 pages of readers' aids, such as a list of illustration, a short annotated glossary, a chronology of the events during Martin's time, a list of important people in his life, a page of selected reading and a map of the area in which Martin lived. In short, this is a scholarly work on an artist that is rarely heard of today. The book is about 9+ x 11 inches, a bit small and thin for a so-called coffee table book.Now I want to return to the aforementioned painting. This painting is 93 inches high by 73 inches wide with the majority of the painting devoted to the cavernous architecture of Westminster Abbey. The figures are assigned to the bottom quarter of this effort. This unfortunately is typical of Martin's paintings. His work is compared with Turner and Thomas Cole. But his style is far removed from the frenetic work of Turners and the brighter canvases of Cole. Martin in transfixed by creating the atmosphere that surrounds his main characters than the characters themselves who are often almost afterthoughts. I have major criticisms with the book (not the content). Martin's paintings are so intense and his characters are so small. The author does not provide the reader with the actual dimensions of the paintings, either in cm or inches. She could have shown the reader closeups of these issues. Unfortunately to me these diminish her scholarly work of an artist whose theatrical works seem so formulaic these days.

I would have to respectfully take issue with other reviewers here who characterized John Martin as “a relatively obscure artist”, “lost his splendor long time ago” and “relegated to the attic, if not the basement, of the history of art”. True, Martin is not an “A List” artist like some of his contemporaries (e. g. Constable, Delacroix, Goya, and Turner). Nonetheless, John Martin is one of the great painters of the Romantic era. His paintings hang in museums around the world, any volume covering nineteenth century art discusses Martin’s work, and his mezzotints are classics and something of a standard in the world of prints and print collecting. All and all, this is a nice book and one of the few currently available on Martin. If you like Martin’s work or romantic painting in general I would recommend it. The text covering Martin’s life and career is well written and an enjoyable read. The book includes many black and white illustrations including 13 high resolution images of Martin’s mezzotint prints. Sections including: a glossary (2 pages), a nice chronology of Martin’s life and historical events of the time (8 pages), a list of “key figures in John Martin’s life” with brief biographic notes (2 pages), selected reading (1 page), and a map (1 page) end the book.I have a few criticisms but, they are relatively minor and I am pleased to have this in my library. This is not a full sized “coffee table art book” and if anything it leaves one wanting more, at 9.75 x 11.25 inches and 121 pages. The artists, titles, dates, and collections of the art illustrated are identified; unfortunately the sizes and mediums are not. There are 52 quality color reproductions however, way too many are wasted on marginal subjects instead of Martin’s paintings. Only 20 color reproductions (less than half) are of Martin’s paintings, with an additional five color plates shown twice or of details. Only 12 of Martin’s paintings are full page color reproductions. Apparently little effort was made to locate works outside of public British museums that had not been reproduced previous books. Of the 20 paintings illustrated, 5 are from the Tate, 5 are from Laing Art Gallery, and 7 more are from other public London and British collections. Comparisons are made to other painters to place him in historical context but, superfluous numbers of color plates (16 total) are of the works of other artist (unidentified artist “in the style of” Martin 3; Thomas Cole 4; William Turner 4; Frederic Church 1; Salvador Rosa 1; Claude Lorrain 1; Sebastiano Ricci 1; James de Loutherbourg 1). Still more color reproductions are dedicated to the Crystal Palace (London), the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower (with lighting), a color photograph of Mount Rushmore with a caption reading only “The National Monument, South Dakota, USA”, a still from the film Ben Hur, etc. etc. I would have preferred to see 45 or 50 of John Martin’s paintings in color, including works from more diverse and private collections that have not been reproduced time and time again.

Was initially very excited when first ordering this book after being awestruck, looking at Martin's 1841 painting "Pandemonium" in person at the Louvre. Opening this book was a great disappointment as it seems to be missing numerous classic Martin pieces such as "Pandemonium" with very few full page illustrations of Martin's work. A majority of Martins ever expansive paintings are relegated to 4"x 6" images surrounded by more text than image, where it's nearly impossible to make out any fine details required to fully appreciate John Martin's work.

About as thorough an account of the life and work of a relatively obscure artist as one could hope for, at a reasonable price. It gave a detailed account of Martin's life and times, and his artist contemporaries. The plates were decent, some whole page, most smaller, but still clear. If you're an artist, as I am, the author portrayed John Martin as human and relatable.

The book is informative and richly illustrated. John Martin's contribution to arts and popular culture is considerable. B.C.Morden does a good job analyzing his body of work and influence. For me Martin's influence of the architectural discourse is of special interest. The book provides important insight into artist's view of the architecture of power and catastrophe. I wish quality of reproductions was better.

I found very interesting to learn about the context in which John Martin created his catastrophes paintings.

An excellent book, describing Martin, who (undeservedly) long lost his splendor long time ago, in a proper way, which shows his innovations, in many aspects on par with Turner's, which are even better seen from the modern prospeciive.

There's a ton to read here, but I came for the paintings which unfortunately aren't dominant enough in this book.

A very good study of John Martin's ouevre, with good quality reproductions and a very well informed text with lots of important information. My only and minor complaint is that some important paintings are missing, allthough not many, otherwise it would be perfect.

Good book although a shame that the intense colour saturation of John Martin's amazing paintings were not reproduced as well as I had hoped in this volume. This is a common problem with illustrated fine art books & presumably has got something to do with production costs. I guess a superb book would likely be double the price & therefore not sell well. I would have also prefered the book to be larger & more portrait or at least square format rather than landscape as it would sit on the book shelf better with other books rather than sticking out. If you get the chance, go and see the John Martin exhibition at Tate Britain before it closes in mid January as it was not crowded unlike the Leonardo exhibition.

This book is ok, as with some of the reviews some of the pictures are in black and white... Why? I don't know but it seemed to be the Best Buy of all the John Martin books available - this is the second order as there is a thief at the Stratford sorting office - Amazon sort it out!

A wonderful and rare chance to Martin's work together in one volume. 'Mad' Martin brought the wide screen Hollywood epic to Victorian England and they still impress today. What must they have thought when the paint was still wet?

A brilliant and fascinating book, filled with wonderful illustrations of John Martin's famous epic paintings.