Kensington Gardens

Kensington Gardens from 1815 by John Martin is another early London park landscape, showing the artist working from familiar urban green spaces. These gentler subjects contrast markedly with the apocalyptic visions that would make Martin famous. Martin's technique involved meticulous architectural planning of his vast compositional schemes, using perspective rulers and careful underdrawing before building up his luminous skies with thin glazes of oil color.

The park landscape is rendered with quiet atmospheric sensitivity, the garden trees and paths treated with careful naturalistic observation.