J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country 1811 > Devonshire Coast, No.1 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Stonehenge, Looking South-West from the Centre 1811

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Stonehenge, Looking South-West from the Centre’ 1811
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 214 Verso:
Stonehenge, Looking South-West from the Centre 1811
D08749
Turner Bequest CXXIII 211a
Pencil on white wove printing paper, 75 x 117 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Dove]’ top right, and ‘[?Cloud]’ centre right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The viewpoint of this rather slight and faint sketch appears to be the centre of Stonehenge’s inner sarsen ‘horseshoe’, with the single surviving stone of the south-western trilithon at the centre. The rough disk above it to the right may be the sun, descending towards the right over Salisbury Plain; it appears to be indicated towards sunset in two more detailed drawings made on the same occasion in the Stonehenge sketchbook (Tate D41383, D41385; Turner Bequest CXXV b 10, 12).
There are three further sketches of the site in the current book, on folios 215 recto and verso and 216 recto (D08750–D08752; CXXIII 212, 212a, 213); for further drawings and related works see the introduction to the Stonehenge sketchbook.

Matthew Imms
June 2011

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Stonehenge, Looking South-West from the Centre 1811 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2011, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-stonehenge-looking-south-west-from-the-centre-r1137227, accessed 10 May 2024.