Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
This painting powerfully illustrates changes in taste over time. Before it was even completed, the painting was purchased for the considerable sum of £1,000 by a newly wealthy industrialist who admired John Linnell’s modern approach to religious subjects. In 1913, however, the painting was sold at auction for only £130. Victorian painting had fallen out of favor among collectors who did not appreciate Linnell’s hotly colored landscapes that combined biblical stories and poetry (in this case Milton’s Paradise Lost) with close study of the English landscape. Linnell was also known for financially supporting the destitute and elderly William Blake, whose mesmerizing painting of Saint Matthew is in the museum's collection.
Inscriptions
Signed lower right: j. linnell / 1848
Provenance
1847-1872: Sold to Joseph Gillott [1799-1872], Birmingham, United Kingdom, May 1847, before the work was completed. 1872: (Christie's, London, United Kingdom, April 19-20 and 26-27, and May 3-4, 1872, sale, lot 137, sold to J. Rhodes for Angus, 1st Lord Holden) 1872-1913: Angus 1st Lord Holden [1833-1912], Nun Appleton House, Bolton Percy, England 1913: (Christie's, London, United Kingdom, July 18, 1913, Holden Sale, lot 64, sold to Bale. Mrs. C. Hunter) 1972: (Sotheby's, London Belgravia sale, February 22, 1972, lot 98, sold to Jeremy Maas, with Herner Wengraf, London) 1972: (Herner Wengraf, London, United Kingdom, 1972, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1972-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973). Landscape of the Bible: Sacred Scenes in European Master Paintings. Israel Museum, 91710 Jerusalem, Israel (organizer) (September 5, 2000-January 31, 2001). British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- John Linnell (British, 1792–1882)
- Date
- 1848
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 168.5 x 242.5 x 9.5 cm (66 5/16 x 95 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 146 x 221 cm (57 1/2 x 87 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 1972.119
More by John Linnell in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009164
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