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John Martin (1789-1854)

The Last Man

Watercolour on paper
width: 68.0 cm, height: 47.5 cm

The last survivor of the dying earth stands on a cliff-top, holding up his arms to heaven. Around him and extending far back into the distance are the bodies of countless numbers of people. The picture illustrates lines from a poem by Thomas Campbell - 'The sun has a sickly glare, The earth with age was wan, The skeleton of nations were, Around that lonely man.. .' Campbell's poem had been published a few years earlier, in 1823. John Martin varnished the watercolour to increase the impact of the colours.

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TWCMS:C6987 itfa0101.mdf (Fine Art, watercolours, Laing)

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