Linnell, John (1792 – 1882) – Saint John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness.

This is likely the sketch begun in 1818 for Linnell's large composition of the same subject dated 1828-1833 and sold at Bonhams 29/10/2008 (lot 102). The small oil sketch is noted as having hung on the artist's studio wall in A. T. Story, The Life of John Linnell, 1892. The composition is one of Linnell's 'Poetical Landscapes'. That is, a religious subject placed within a British landscape. See for example, The Disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Ashmolean) and Noah: the Eve of the Deluge (Cleveland Museum of Art).