The Fire, Edinburgh

The Fire, Edinburgh from around 1822 by John Martin documents a great fire in the Scottish capital, a contemporary disaster that fed the public appetite for dramatic catastrophe scenes. Martin's skill in depicting conflagrations made him the natural painter of such events. Martin's apocalyptic subjects resonated with an era of industrial transformation; his vast canvases toured Britain and America and were reproduced as mezzotints, reaching a public far beyond what galleries could accommodate.

The urban fire scene employs Martin's mastery of dramatic light effects, the flames illuminating the city architecture in a spectacle of destruction.