Professional MoronThe Genius of John Martin’s HELLISH Landscapes 🔥
Every now and again we discover an artist whose work floors us. John Martin (1789-1854) is another example, a Romanticist whose spectacular work (see Pandemonium from 1841 above) covered fantastic art, vast spectrums of light, and berserk religious adherence.
We’ll get into all that in a bit, but for now behold the majesty of Martin’s spectacular and imposing landscapes. Feel free to quake a little bit in terror, too.
John Martin’s World of Biblical Catastrophes
The above piece (The Plains of Heaven from 1851, part of a triptych of oil paintings called The Last Judgement) was what drew our attention to Martin’s work. It’s one of the more vibrant and welcoming pieces he painted, but most of his artistic themes were shaped by various tragedies in his personal life.
It was much the same for Alfred Kubin’s macabre and disturbed pieces, who covered recently.
Martin’s work often merged Biblical references with landscape painting with literature. His Pandemonium painting is arguably his most famous, which was his artistic take on John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost (1667). In that, the capital of Hell is Pandæmonium.
For a start, we really like the idea of Hell having a capital. Somewhere you can hang out for a bit, grab a tea or coffee and a bite to eat, before being mercilessly tortured by demons.
But for the artist, this was no joke. And he could create a feeling of human insignificance, distant figures bickering whilst dwarfed by enormous landscapes, with big open skies as if GOD’S presence is peering down on humanity and sneering.
Fantastic art scenes there, in line with talented peers such as gothic master Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). But where Friedrich used bleak subtlety, Martin was full on bombastic in his hellscape visions.
There are also, by accident over design, hints of future artistic trends.
Such as graphic novels, with Destruction of Pharaoh’s Host (1836) having that eerie sunset off in the distance. It wouldn’t be out of place in something such as Jesse Lonergan’s rather riveting DROME (2025).
John Martin was born in July 1789 in Northumberland, North East England. His father cultivated his artistic talents before moving to London in 1806. He married at the age of 19 and earned a living by providing drawing lessons and selling watercolour paintings.
He had three brothers, one of whom (Jonathan) struggled with mental illness and set fire to the cathedral York Minster in 1829.
Early in his career was when a series of tragedies struck. In one year (circa 1810), he lost his father, mother, grandmother, and his young son. His brother Jonathan was also institutionalised for arson.
To be clear, this didn’t influence the nature of his work (unlike Alfred Kubin, whose work was defined by the death of his mother). He was already painting apocalyptic scenes before these personal tragedies.
He maintained that focus for his whole career, see below with The Destruction of Tyre (1840).
Under modern comprehension, we can see in this work existential philosophy. The total insignificance of humans to the backdrop of a remorseless universe.
But for John Martin, he created his works to highlight more GOD’S eternal power over us all, deeply influenced by his religious upbringing, he seemed hellbent on exploring the nature of judgement, cosmic apocalypses, and eternal wrath.
All very vivid to behold now, especially that focus on grand scale natural settings how the simultaneous awe and terror the natural world can create.
The difference is Martin thought it was all a divine energy. When these days, being atheists here at Professional Moron, we see the natural absurdity of existence.
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