Noah: The Eve of the Deluge (1848): Art, History and Details

Noah: The Eve of the Deluge (1848) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Linnell (British, 1792–1882).

The work and its context

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

This painting powerfully illustrates changes in taste over time. Before it was even completed, the painting was purchased for the considerable sum of £1,000 by a newly wealthy industrialist who admired John Linnell’s modern approach to religious subjects. In 1913, however, the painting was sold at auction for only £130. Victorian painting had fallen out of favor among collectors who did not appreciate Linnell’s hotly colored landscapes that combined biblical stories and poetry (in this case Milton’s Paradise Lost) with close study of the English landscape. Linnell was also known for financially supporting the destitute and elderly William Blake, whose mesmerizing painting of Saint Matthew is in the museum's collection.

Object facts

• Title: Noah: The Eve of the Deluge
• Date: 1848
• Creator attribution: John Linnell (British, 1792–1882)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 168.5 x 242.5 x 9.5 cm (66 5/16 x 95 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 146 x 221 cm (57 1/2 x 87 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1972.119

A detail from the museum

Linnell was an extremely versatile artist who worked in oils and watercolors, painted miniatures on ivory, and was skilled as an engraver.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1972.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (March 1973): 63–115.
• Firestone, Evan R. “John Linnell: The Eve of the Deluge.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 4 (April 1975): 131–39.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

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.