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 1⁄2 x 19 1⁄2 in. (72.4 x 49.5 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
Artist
Date
after 1844
Location
Dimensions
28 1⁄2 x 19 1⁄2 in. (72.4 x 49.5 cm)
Markings
stretcher verso lower center: M.K. Kellogg stretcher verso lower center: March 1844 frame verso center to right in blue ink: K292 frame verso left in pencil: GOLD LEAF (in a circle) stretcher verso right upper in black ink: 59 stretcher verso left lower in black ink: D stretcher verso lower center in black ink: The "Top of Mount Sinai with the Chapel of Elijah."/Painted by Miner Kilbourne Kellogg who visited/the scene in March 1844. (see Kitto's Scripture stands)/The old Cypress is the only tree on the Mountain. The figures/are M. Kellogg and his arab (sic) servant./Presented to M.rs(sic) Harves with the Kindest regards/of the Painter M.K. Kellogg stretcher verso center bar left to right in white chalk: 407 19 17-588 in yellow chalk: 49012719 2 (in a circle)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on linen
Classifications
Keywords
  • Landscape
  • Figure group — male
  • Occupation — service
  • Occupation — art — painter
  • Arabian
  • Landscape — mountain — Mount Sinai
  • Portrait male — Kellogg, Miner Kilbourne — self-portrait
Object Number
1991.2
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/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)