Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-martin-371" aria-label="More by John Martin" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Martin</a>
Destruction Pompeii and Herculaneum
Purchased 1869
actions: expressive
adults
architecture
beach
comforting
countries and continents
crowd
disaster: Mount Vesuvius eruption, 79 AD
embracing
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fear
fire
fleeing
groups
Herculaneum
historical: imagined views
history
horror
Italy
lava
man
natural phenomena
people
places
politics and society
Pompeii
protecting
seascapes and coasts
ship, sailing
society
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
volcanic eruption
wave
woman
<p>Martin’s rendering of ancient cities being wracked by disaster were popular spectacles in their own day, and directly inspired the treatment of such themes in theatrical presentations and early cinema.The painting was thought to have been destroyed in the flood of the Tate in 1928, but was later restored.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
5 March 2011 – 15 January 2012
2012-01-15
21 September 2011 – 15 January 2012
2012-01-15
2011-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2011-03-05
John Martin
Exhibition
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
2014-03-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-03-04
Ruin Lust
Exhibition
26 March 2015 – 27 May 2020
2020-05-27
26 March 2015 – 21 June 2015
2015-06-21
2015-03-26
Museo Nacional de Arte (Mexico City, Mexico)
18 July 2015 – 18 October 2015
2015-10-18
2015-07-18
Pinacoteca do Estado (São Paulo, Brazil)
27 April 2018 – 5 August 2018
2018-08-05
2018-04-27
Shanghai Art Museum (Shanghai, China)
4 September 2018 – 13 November 2018
2018-11-13
2018-09-04
National Art Museum of China (Beijing, China)
2015-03-26
British Landscape
Tate partnerships & programmes
26 June 2017 – 12 November 2017
2017-11-12
26 June 2017 – 12 November 2017
2017-11-12
2017-06-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2017-06-26
Ray Harryhausen
Collection based display
11 September 2019 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
11 September 2019 – 16 February 2020
2020-02-16
2019-09-11
Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, France)
29 February 2020 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
2020-02-29
External
2019-09-11
Gainsborough to Turner: The Golden Age of English Painting
Loan-out
8 June 2021 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
8 July 2021 – 14 November 2021
2021-11-14
2021-07-08
Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai, China)
20 December 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
2021-12-20
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
15 June 2022 – 13 November 2022
2022-11-13
2022-06-15
ACMI (Melbourne, Australia)
25 February 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-02-25
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
12 July 2023 – 2 October 2023
2023-10-02
2023-07-12
National Art Center (Tokyo, Japan)
26 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
2023-10-26
Nakanoshima Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan)
2021-06-08
Light
Tate partnerships & programmes
23 March 2024 – 2 June 2024
2024-06-02
23 March 2024 – 2 June 2024
2024-06-02
2024-03-23
Somerset County Museums Service (Taunton, UK)
2024-03-23
Spotlight Loan
Loan-out
The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum
support: 1616 × 2530 mm
frame: 1968 × 2879 × 161 mm
Purchased 1869
<div class="text">
<p>John Martin’s large, vividly coloured and detailed oil painting imagines the extent of the disaster that famously beset the sister cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum when the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted on 24 August AD 79. Taking as its vantage point the shores of the town of Stabiae, on the opposite side of the Bay of Naples, the picture shows a multitude of fleeing survivors struggling on to dry land.  Herculaneum is in the distance to the left, smothered with lava; Pompeii is laid out in sufficient detail to be able to identify specific buildings, most prominently the circular ‘great Theatre’ and the Basilica. Mount Vesuvius is shown in the early stages of the eruption, the glow of lava colouring the whole landscape a vivid red, while the sky is convulsed by billowing ash clouds and shredded by lightning. A contemporary, Joseph Jean Pichot, noted in relation to the artist: ‘Volcanic eruptions are, of course, calculated to furnish him with brilliant subjects. In representing the eruption of Vesuvius, he has been less desirous of giving a dramatic effect to his figures, by poutraying [sic] the gestures and attitudes of terror, than of producing powerful contrasts by every reflection of light on the groupes [sic] and scenery’ (Joseph Jean Pichot,<i> Historical and Literary Tour of a Foreigner in England</i>, 2 vols, London 1825, vol.1, p.123).</p>
<p>The painting was first exhibited as the centrepiece of John Martin’s one-man show at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London in 1822. The Egyptian Hall was a commercial venture and Martin’s show sat within a programme of varied entertainments, including an exhibition on Lapland (featuring actual Laplanders in full costume with a sledge and live reindeer, before a panoramic backdrop), the annual exhibition of the Society of Painters in Watercolour, ‘The Terror of India’ (with a gigantic snake and other supposedly terrifying animals), and the ‘African Museum of Natural History’. The exhibition of the painting confirmed Martin’s growing reputation among the general public as a painter of spectacular scenes of disaster. High-minded critics were less impressed, however, and tended to view such pictures as sensationalist entertainments rather than serious art.</p>
<p>The painting had been commissioned by Richard Grenville (1776–1839), who was created the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1822. It was bought by the National Gallery in 1867 and later transferred to the Tate Gallery. In 1928 the painting was in basement storage when the Tate suffered a disastrous flood. The picture was badly damaged and effectively written off but was extensively restored in 2011.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>William Feaver, <i>The Art of John Martin</i>, Oxford 1975, pp.55–9.<br/>Paul P. Costeloe, <i>William Bullock Connoisseur and Virtuoso of the Egyptian Hall: Piccadilly to Mexico</i>, Bristol 2008.<br/>Martin Myrone (ed.), <i>John Martin: Apocalypse</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2012, pp.109–15.</p>
<p>Martin Myrone<br/>September 2013</p>
</div>

Summary
2013-11-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Martin’s rendering of ancient cities being wracked by disaster were popular spectacles in their own day, and directly inspired the treatment of such themes in theatrical presentations and early cinema.<br/>The painting was thought to have been destroyed in the flood of the Tate in 1928, but was later restored.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-08-23T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: expressive adults architecture beach comforting countries and continents crowd disaster: Mount Vesuvius eruption, 79 AD embracing emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fear fire fleeing groups Herculaneum historical: imagined views history horror Italy lava man natural phenomena people places politics and society Pompeii protecting seascapes and coasts ship, sailing society townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features transport: water volcanic eruption wave woman