Ruins of an Ancient City (c. 1810–20): Art, History and Details

Ruins of an Ancient City (c. 1810–20) 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:

The painting depicts an imagined scene of a ruined ancient city bathed in the nostalgic glow of twilight. The artist's detailed, almost archeological, interest in these Greek or Roman buildings is characteristic of neoclassicism, although the composition—which plunges suddenly from the foreground into a deep valley—and dramatic lighting are typical of Romantic painting.

Object facts

• Title: Ruins of an Ancient City
• Date: c. 1810–20
• Creator attribution: John Martin (British, 1789–1854)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on paper, mounted on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 118.5 x 142 x 8 cm (46 5/8 x 55 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 95.6 x 118.6 cm (37 5/8 x 46 11/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1981.13

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1981.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 2 (February 1982): 39–82.
• Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.

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.