The Top of Mount Sinai with the Chapel of Elijah

Media - 1991.2 - SAAM-1991.2_1 - 64296
Copied Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, The Top of Mount Sinai with the Chapel of Elijah, after 1844, oil on linen, 28 1219 12 in. (72.449.5 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1991.2
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
The Top of Mount Sinai with the Chapel of Elijah
Date
after 1844
Dimensions
28 1219 12 in. (72.449.5 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on linen
Classifications
Keywords
  • Figure group — male
  • Occupation — service
  • Occupation — art — painter
  • Arabian
  • Landscape — mountain — Mount Sinai
  • Portrait male — Kellogg, Miner Kilbourne — self-portrait
Object Number
1991.2

Artwork Description

Miner Kilbourne Kellogg painted several pictures of Mount Sinai and was fascinated by its religious significance as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments. This painting shows the artist himself, seated on the summit next to the Chapel of Elijah. Through his studies of the area, Kellogg found evidence of a valley called Es-Seba’îyeh, where Moses and the Israelites may have camped. Back in America, he gave many lectures about his travels, using this painting along with others to illustrate his findings. (Davis, The Landscape of Belief, 1996)