皇冠体育app

Arts Minister Michael Ellis has placed a temporary export bar on 皇冠体育app Destruction of Pharaoh鈥檚 Host, by the British artist John Martin (1789-1854), to provide an opportunity to keep it in the country.

皇冠体育app watercolour is at risk of being exported from the UK unless a buyer can be found to match the asking price of 拢1,509,102.

皇冠体育app drawing illustrates the Biblical story (Exodus 14) of Moses releasing the waters of the Red Sea, after they had miraculously parted to allow the fleeing Israelites to cross, thereby drowning the pursuing Egyptian army.

Employing a panoramic composition to magnificent effect, Martin plays with the scale of the figures and the scenery to maximise the epic nature of the drama. 皇冠体育app emotional force of this scene of deliverance and retribution is heightened by a blood red sunset below a sweeping black sky.

Although Martin is best known for his spectacular oil paintings and mezzotints (a tonal print technique that was ideally suited to capturing his bold use of light and shade for dramatic effect) illustrating John Milton鈥檚 Paradise Lost and the Bible, he also created a series of framed 鈥榚xhibition watercolours鈥�, which in scale and visual impact were intended to compete for attention and patronage with oil paintings.

Martin鈥檚 mezzotints of Biblical subjects, such as 皇冠体育app Destruction of Pharaoh鈥檚 Host published in 1833, were hugely popular and influential with admirers including Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters who grew up with them on the walls of their father鈥檚 parsonage.

Martin鈥檚 large-scale watercolour treatment of the same subject from three years later was intended to capitalise on his popular success, and 皇冠体育app Destruction of Pharoah鈥檚 Host demonstrates his bold use of the medium in the eye-catching brightness of the colours, with the tonal range expanded through extensive use of black pigment, bodycolour, and gum arabic.

Martin鈥檚 artistic reputation did not endure 鈥� despite the influence he played in shaping the epic scale and grandeur of Biblical and historical epics in films by directors like Cecil B. DeMille 鈥� as his standing suffered from the disapproval of the art critic John Ruskin and the artist鈥檚 focus later in his life shifted to planning ambitious engineering schemes to deliver clean water and an efficient sewage system to London.

皇冠体育app subsequent and enduring shift in taste away from the use of watercolour for grandiose narrative subjects, allied to a longstanding critical downplaying of the significance of the medium to British art, meant that Martin鈥檚 stature as a watercolourist was long overlooked, until interest in his work began to revive in the early 1950s.

Martin鈥檚 importance is now more widely recognised and celebrated, and the ambition, boldness and grandeur of 皇冠体育app Destruction of Pharoah鈥檚 Host exemplifies his unique contribution to British watercolour history.

Arts Minister Michael Ellis said:

This incredibly dramatic picture captures the imaginative and apocalyptic subjects for which Martin is best known.

I hope it can remain in the UK, where it can be admired and studied for many years to come.

皇冠体育app decision to defer the export licence follows a recommendation by the , administered by 皇冠体育app Arts Council.

RCEWA member Lowell Libson said:

Working in watercolour played a significant part in Martin鈥檚 art throughout his career although he is now best remembered for his exhibition works in oil. 皇冠体育app Destruction of Pharaoh鈥檚 Host not only demonstrates Martin鈥檚 mastery of the medium but underlines how he employed it to achieve emotional and dramatic effects of a subtlety which were impossible in his larger scale oil paintings. 皇冠体育app Destruction of Pharaoh鈥檚 Host numbers amongst the greatest of Martin鈥檚 watercolours.

皇冠体育app RCEWA made its recommendation on the grounds of the picture鈥檚 outstanding significance in the reassessment of John Martin 鈥� the most popular artist of his day, dismissed by the art establishment and ignored for almost a century 鈥� whose influence on the development of epic, visionary landscape painting, both in Britain and in America, is now widely acknowledged.

皇冠体育app decision on the export licence application for the picture will be deferred until 21 May. This may be extended until 21 September if a serious intention to raise funds to purchase it is made at the recommended price of 拢1,509,102.

Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the picture should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.

An image of the picture can be downloaded via our .

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Details of the picture are as follows: Watercolour by John Martin (1789-1854), 皇冠体育app Destruction of Pharaoh鈥檚 Host, signed and dated: 鈥楯. Martin/1836鈥� (lower right). Pencil and watercolour with gum arabic heightened with body colour and with scratching out; 23 x 33 戮 in. (584 x 857 mm).
2. Provenance: (Probably) J.E. Jesse, by 1876; with Agnew鈥檚, London; with Leger & Son, London, by September 1954, sold in or after 1958 to George Goyder; Sotheby鈥檚, London, 11 July 1991, lot 192, where purchased by private owner (sold for world auction record price for watercolour by this artist 拢107,800); Christie鈥檚, London, 3 July 2012, lot 139 (est. 拢300,000-500,000, sold for 拢758,050, also world auction record).
3. 皇冠体育app Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by 皇冠体育app Arts Council, which advises the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria.
4. 皇冠体育app Arts Council champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people鈥檚 lives. It supports a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries 鈥� from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. www.artscouncil.org.uk.