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A Man Playing a Harp with other Figures beside a Lake
by John Martin
About the Artwork
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.
Exhibition history
Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 15-November 14, 2004).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- John Martin (British, 1789–1854)
- Date
- 1820
- Medium
- brown wash with graphite
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 19.7 x 26.8 cm (7 3/4 x 10 9/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1997.39
More by John Martin 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-00011524
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