In the early nineteenth century, John Martin created large-scale paintings of apocalyptic biblical events set in imaginary, often fantastic landscapes that were subsequently translated into prints with wide distribution. Yet, Martin spent much of his time sketching in London and the counties around the city, such as Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Kent. Martin also worked in engineering, due to a period of financial hardship, improving London’s water supply, and he was involved in the plans for the docks, sewers, and embanking along the Thames.

One of the artist’s favorite places was Richmond, in particular, Richmond Park, one of London’s eight Royal Parks, which covers 2,500 acres. It was known as the Manor of Sheen under King Edward (1272–1307), but the name changed to Richmond during the reign of Henry VII, and it was primarily used as a hunting spot by him and his successors. In 1625 King Charles I turned it into a royal park, known for its expansive grasslands and individual oaks. He moved to Richmond Palace in 1637 and built an eight-mile brick wall around the park to keep the game inside for his hunting, but in order to avoid public uproar he also built six gates, still intact, and several ladder stiles for municipal access to the park. The park retains its herds of fallow and red deer.

The artist was commemorated by the park’s most famous tree, called “John Martin’s Oak,” which stood on the terrace south of Pembroke Lodge, originally the molecatcher’s cottage.¹ The residence was later given to the prime minister, Lord John Russell, by Queen Victoria. He lived there from 1847 to 1878, followed by his grandson, the philosopher Bertrand Russell, from 1876 to 1894, who commented that it had “wide horizons and an unimpeded view of the sunset.”² The oak tree was at the end of Hornbeam Walk, near Ham Gate. Due to its strength and endurance, this type of tree has symbolized the essence of Englishness. The oak appears in the center of Martin’s Richmond Park, a watercolor from 1850 in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, surrounded by a circular bench. The watercolor was probably called View near Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park when exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1851.³

In the 1840s and early 1850s, Martin made several of these independent landscapes, in watercolor and oil on paper, showing varied prospects of Richmond Park.⁴ Each image in this series offers a long, narrow view. Martin exhibited eight of these views at the Royal Academy between 1844 and 1852. The landscape in the Stuart Collection is one of two views from the western edge of the park that is listed in the 1844 Royal Academy Exhibition guide, most likely as cat. 922, View toward Kingston (Southwest of Richmond), instead of cat. 933, View toward Teddington and Windsor (Past the Thames River, to the West).⁵ This composition leads the viewer toward another mighty oak at center, with two clearings on either side and deer in the background at right. A bright splash of green contrasts with the dappled shade of the trees across the narrow composition. One male figure engaged in reading or drawing stands under the central oaks while some deer rest in low foliage toward the front of the scene. A couple at rest on the roots of a tree at left are enjoying the spectacular view. The woman appears to be reading, while the man is perhaps drawing the landscape. Such figures at leisure are a recurring motif in several of Martin’s late London-area landscapes.

This view of Richmond Park from 1843 is from the same year as a watercolor of the same subject by Martin in the Victoria and Albert Museum that may have appeared in the 1944 Royal Academy exhibition as either cat. 922 or more likely cat. 933.⁶ In the Victoria and Albert Museum watercolor, the wide, panoramic view peers down into a winding valley with ancient trees, where a gentleman lounging on the grass pauses from his book that rests besides him. A distant view of the Surrey countryside lies beyond. C. L. Collenette, in 1937, identified this view as a section of the landscaped Petersham Park, on the western edge of Richmond Park.⁷ It has been suggested that Martin intended to produce an engraved series after these landscape studies of Richmond, but only a few were published.⁸ Martin’s love of trees extended from his series of etchings, made early in his career, published in Characters of Trees.9 He continued to portray them throughout his career, as evidenced by his 1843 watercolors and oils on paper of Richmond Park, in which Martin paid particular attention to the twisting growth of the branches, treating them in an exaggerated, eccentric manner. —Dena M. Woodall