A Man Playing a Harp with other Figures beside a Lake (1820): Art, History and Details

A Man Playing a Harp with other Figures beside a Lake (1820) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Martin (British, 1789–1854).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: A Man Playing a Harp with other Figures beside a Lake
• Date: 1820
• Creator attribution: John Martin (British, 1789–1854)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: brown wash with graphite
• Dimensions: Sheet: 19.7 x 26.8 cm (7 3/4 x 10 9/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1997.39

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.