The Repentance of Nineveh
after John Martin (Haydon Bridge 1789 - Douglas 1854)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1829 (bears signature and date)
Materials
Oil on canvas relined on board
Measurements
413 x 572 mm (16 ¼ x 22 ½ in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515663
Caption
This painting probably dates from early in the 1830s, since a version of the subject, engraved by H. Le Keux, was published in The Keepsake Annual of 1832, along with a poem on the theme by Ralph Bernal. MP (1783/4 - 1854). Although scorned by critics like John Ruskin at the time, Martin’s paintings are appreciated for their sense of awe-inspiring grandeur, which is often compared to modern epic film scenes. Nineveh, often mentioned in the Bible, was the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire, on the River Tigris opposite modern Mosul, Iraq. It reached its full glory under Sennacherib and Assurbanipal but fell in 612 BC to the coalition of Babylonians, Medes and Scythians.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas relined on board, The Repentance of Nineveh, after John Martin (Haydon Bridge 1789 - Douglas 1854), bears signature and date 1829. Grandiose architecture, massed figures, praying priests and others on platform right foreground, lightning. The biblical scene depicted is described in Jonah (1 and 3): “Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. And Jonah began to enter the city, a day's journey, and he cried, and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Ninevah shall be overthrown.’ Ralph Bernal, MP (1783/4 - 26 1854) wrote the lines which were accompanied an engraving published in The Keepsake Annual of 1832: It was a grand and fearful sight When in the wild, and earthly light Of the red lightning's glare, Thousands upon the bended knee Deplored God's stern but just decree, In one united prayer: 'Oh, Lord of Hosts! whose Mighty Will Can surely save, as surely kill, Thy fatal curse remove! Receive our penitence and tears, And turn a people's guilty fears Into their grateful love!' That prayer was heard! In mercy, great, The Lord repressed his vengeful hate Towards those who pardon craved. The prophet griev'd; but heavenly peace, Bade murmuring end and mourning cease, And Ninevah was saved!
Provenance
Possibly Agnews; bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
after John Martin (Haydon Bridge 1789 - Douglas 1854) , artist
References
Balston 1947 Thomas Balston, John Martin, 1789-1854. His Life & Works, G. Duckworth & Co. Ltd., 1947, Appendix 6, ‘Oil Paintings, (a) Bible and Paradise Lost’, No. 43