The Last Judgement by John Martin Postcard

This is a reproduction of “The Great Day of His Wrath”of about 1852 by John Martin. He was sixty-five years old when he created this huge masterpiece. The scene is a landscape depicting the Biblical Last Judgement, a familiar topic throughout the history of European Art. The Artist was born in Northumberland and became a student of Bonifacio Musso. They moved to London when Martin was seventeen and he married two years later. He supported himself giving drawing lessons and selling watercolors and, on his second attempt, had an oil on canvas hung in the Royal Academy when he twenty-two. Five years later he won public acclaim for his Joshua and two years later a large sale enabled him to buy a home and rid himself of debt. He went on to win wider public acclaim and to become a favourite of aristocrats and royalty. He died a wealthy man in 1874. This painting is an oil on canvas and measures 77.48 by 128.27 inches. It is in the Tate Gallery in London.