The Valley of the Tyne, My Native Country near Henshaw (1842): Art, History and Details

The Valley of the Tyne, My Native Country near Henshaw (1842) 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:

Panoramic landscapes in watercolor became an important source of income during John Martin’s late career. This work demonstrates his ability to convey monumentality on a small scale and to combine broad washes of color with meticulous detail. The sweeping vista in this drawing describes the fertile valley of the River Tyne, known for its forests, flora, and fauna. Curving arcs of slopes and plains swirl around the composition. A tiny couple and dog rush through the vast landscape beneath ominous storm clouds.

Object facts

• Title: The Valley of the Tyne, My Native Country near Henshaw
• Date: 1842
• Creator attribution: John Martin (British, 1789–1854)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: watercolor, gouache and gum arabic with graphite underdrawing, sanding, and scraping
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.6 x 67.5 cm (10 1/2 x 26 9/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1997.138

A detail from the museum

The setting of this watercolor is John Martin's native Northumberland, to which he was deeply attached and described having spent time there "exulting in the sublime grandeur of the surrounding beauties of nature."

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Feaver, William. The Art of John Martin. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
• Feaver, William. John Martin Loan Exhibition: Oil Paintings, Watercolours, Prints. Exh. Cat. London: Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, 1975.

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.