Christopher Johnstone provides a succinct but nonetheless interesting and detailed account of John Martin, painter of monumental and dramatic canvases both in subject and scale, going back to his childhood. Johnstone also provides a commentary of the Last Judgement paintings, The Deluge series and the illustrations for Milton’s Paradise Lost. He includes a selected bibliography.

Most of the book, from page 28, is given over to the plates; 92 in total of which 11 are in colour, a number of the full page including some full page bleed images. Most of the paintings are accompanied by a commentary. The quality of reproduction is fairly good; a few of the monochromes suffer from a lack of detail in the very dark or the very light areas and the same can be said for some of the colour plates, the latter also lack the vibrancy I remember of the originals. A few appear to be lacking in sharpness.

It is however a fascinating account, and to have so many of the paintings, if only mostly in black and white, is a real boon.

11.5” x 8.5” (29.1 cm x 21.5 cm) 132 pages. Published 1974. ISBN 856701807 Paperback. ISBN 856701750 Hardback. ( )