Rocky Road: John Martin

John Martin

Top: "Deluge" detail from Scenes from Deep Time by Martin J.S. Rudwick
Bottom: "Country of Iguanodon" detail from Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs by Dennis R. Dean

John Martin was a famous 19th-century artist with a flair for drama — some would say melodrama. Some would even say he captured on canvas the experience of intoxication brought on by opium. Unlike some of his contemporaries, however, Martin was not an opium user. Martin painted masterpieces about biblical and classical subjects, including Belshazzar's Feast and The Fall of Nineveh. In Deluge, a painting about the biblical flood, Martin captured the anguish of the damned left behind to drown.

Those who couldn't easily see Martin's original paintings in London had access to affordable prints, thanks to technical innovations in engraving techniques. This helped him reach an even bigger audience.

Nineteenth-century paleontologists weren't stupid. They knew how to capitalize on fame, even someone else's. The result was that John Martin was invited to illustrate the frontispieces for a variety of popular publications, by George Richardson, Thomas Hawkins and (as shown at right) Gideon Mantell. Martin brought the same apocalyptic mood to dinosaur pictures as he did to everything else. The results were dragon-like dinosaurs with bulging eyes and contorted necks, doing perpetual battle with each other. The same characteristics of Martin's work that made him a sought-after illustrator for books written for the public kept other scientists away from him. When writing academic papers for each other, many scientists chose more restrained, accurate illustrators.

For more information:
Scenes from Deep Time by Martin J.S. Rudwick
Tastes of Paradise by Wolfgang Schivelbusch
Fossil Revolution by Douglas Palmer
Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs by Dennis R. Dean