Thomas Seddon

Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat from the Hill of Evil Counsel

1854–5

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

Not on display

Artist: Thomas Seddon 1821–1856
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Frame: 870 × 1030 × 100 mm
support: 673 × 832 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by subscribers 1857
Reference: N00563

Display caption

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.’

Gallery label, March 2010

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

Explore

architecture(41,337)
- features(8,915)
- - dome(505)
- residential(5,541)
- - house(2,666)
- townscapes / man-made features(21,710)
- - city wall(160)
  - townscape, distant(8,119)
nature(45,213)
- animals: mammals(4,859)
- - goat(134)
  - sheep(492)
- landscape(25,912)
- - field(672)
  - rocky(2,833)
  - valley(2,020)
- natural phenomena(3,193)
- - shadow(1,320)
- seasons(4,483)
- - summer(1,402)
- trees(3,240)
- - tree(2,466)
- weather(3,607)
- - sunshine(517)
objects(23,377)
- weapons(934)
- - gun, rifle(203)
people(35,142)
- actions: postures and motions(9,219)
- - reclining(806)
- actions: processes and functions(2,156)
- - sleeping(314)
- adults(22,735)
- - man(10,497)
places(41,541)
- cities, towns, villages (non-UK)(13,291)
- - Jerusalem - non-specific(23)
- countries and continents(17,556)
- - Israel(61)
- natural features (non-UK)(4,601)
- - Hill of Evil Counsel(1)
  - Valley of Jehoshaphat(1)
work and occupations(14,165)
- agriculture and fishing(1,298)
- - herdsman / herdswoman(240)
  - herdsman / herdswoman, shepherd / shepherdess(165)

You might like

Robert Braithwaite Martineau Picciola

1853
After Joseph Mallord William Turner Jerusalem, with the Walls

1836

View by appointment
Frederic George Stephens The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda)

c.1850
John Frederick Lewis Edfu, Upper Egypt

1860
William Davis A Day’s Sport at Bidston Hill

c.1865
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid

1862
Ford Madox Brown Lear and Cordelia

1849–54

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art
John Frederick Lewis Study for ‘The Courtyard of the Coptic Patriarch’s House in Cairo’

c.1864
William Holman Hunt The Awakening Conscience

1853
Frederic George Stephens Mother and Child

c.1854

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation)

1849–50
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Girlhood of Mary Virgin

1848–9

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt The Order of Release 1746

1852–3
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt Ophelia

1851–2

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art
Augustus Leopold Egg Past and Present, No. 3

1858

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art

In the shop

Browse the shop