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Martin, John (2)

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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(2), an English painter of Biblical subjects, was born near Hexham, Northumberland, July 19, 1789; went to London in 1806, and, after some years spent in obscure struggles, made his first appearance as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1812. His picture was entitled Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion, and attracted much notice. It was followed within two years by the Expulsion from Paradise, Clytee, and Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still. The last of these works was a great success in point of popularity, but it was also the cause of a quarrel between Martin and the English Academy, in consequence of which he never obtained any distinction from the society. From this period till nearly the close of his life he incessantly painted pictures in a style which was considered "sublime" by the same sort of people who thought Montgomery's Satan and Pollok's Course of Time equal to Paradise Lost. The principal of these productions are Belshazzar's Feast (1821); Creation (1824); The Deluge (1826); The Fall of Nineveh (1828); Pandemonium (1841); Morning and Evening (1844); The Last Man (1850). He died at Douglas, Isle of Man, Feb. 9, 1854. — Chambers, Cyclop. s.v. See Autobiography of John Martin in the Athenoeum (1854).