Paintings

The City of God

Type: Paintings(Opens in new tab)
Date: ca. 1850
Accession number: 2018.7
Maker: John Martin(Opens in new tab) (British, 1789–1854)
Dimensions: 18 × 26 in. (45.7 × 66 cm.)
Medium: oil on canvas
Description: This painting shows a highly dramatic image of a natural landscape that represents the Christian heaven.
Credit: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Adele S. Browning Memorial Art Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth R. Bender, Mr. Stewart R. Smith and Ms. Robin A. Ferracone, and James R. Parks
Department: European Art
Find out more: View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)

Label text

The City of God exhibits many of the hallmarks of Martin’s iconic artistic style: dramatic depiction of deep space, atmosphere suffused with otherworldly light, and the outsized relationship of landscape forms to human figures. His visual representation of the Christian heaven appears as a gleaming city beyond the setting’s verdant valley and placid waters.

The City of God

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