The Art of the Sublime

ISBN 978-1-84976-387-5

Thomas Seddon Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat from the Hill of Evil Counsel 1854–5

Thomas Seddon 'Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat from the Hill of Evil Counsel' 1854-5
Thomas Seddon 1821–1856
Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat from the Hill of Evil Counsel 1854–5
Oil paint on canvas
frame: 870 x 1030 x 100 mm; support: 673 x 832 mm
Tate N00563
Presented by subscribers 1857
Seddon and his friend Holman Hunt journeyed to the Holy Land in 1854 to bring greater authenticity, spiritual and topographical, to their religious works. This view, painted south of Jerusalem, shows the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane, the site of Christ’s anguish before the Crucifixion. The valley of Jehoshaphat was also believed to be where the Last Judgement would take place. Unlike John Martin’s apocalyptic visions, displayed nearby, Seddon represents the site in painstaking, sun-lit detail, paralleling the art critic John Ruskin’s remarks that ‘in following the steps of nature’, artists were ‘tracing the finger of God’.

How to cite

Thomas Seddon, Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat from the Hill of Evil Counsel 1854-5, in Nigel Llewellyn and Christine Riding (eds.), The Art of the Sublime, Tate Research Publication, January 2013, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/thomas-seddon-jerusalem-and-the-valley-of-jehoshaphat-from-the-hill-of-evil-counsel-r1105587, accessed 29 March 2024.