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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level H , Case WD, Shelf 71, Box B

Stonehenge

Watercolour
ca. 1805 (made), 1783-1852 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Watercolour of Stonehenge


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleStonehenge (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour
Brief description
Watercolour drawing by Samuel Prout depicting Stonehenge in Wiltshire. Great Britain, ca. 1805.
Physical description
Watercolour of Stonehenge
Dimensions
  • Height: 11.125in
  • Width: 18.25in
Dimensions taken from departmental notes
Object history
Historical Significance:

Prout’s artistic talent was discovered by the headmaster of his grammar school in Plymouth who encouraged him to receive training locally. In 1801 he met the topographer, antiquarian and writer John Britton (1771-1857). The following year Britton invited him to London to make drawings of antiquarian subjects and copies of works by artists including Turner, Hearne and Cotman. Between 1801 and 1805 he contributed drawings that were worked up into engravings published in Britton’s Beauties of England. Prout’s early work follows the antiquarian subject matter and style of his mentor Britton. In 1808 he became drawing master at Dr Glennies School in Dulwich, where he attracted a private clientele of about 30 pupils. From 1803 he had begun exhibiting in London, at the Royal Academy, British Institution and Society of Painters in Water-Colours. With his increased popularity in the 1820s, Prouts work became less antiquarian. This was partly due to his beginning to depict views of the Continent in this decade. He travelled to Paris, Le Havre,and Rouen in 1819 and returned to the Continent on a number of tours in the 1820s and 1830s. From the 1830’s Prout’s work had declined in population, however in the years following his death, perhaps encouraged by Ruskin’s praise for the artist, its popularity increased for a short time again.

This drawing dates to Prout’s early career and association with Britton. Between 1801 and 1805 the artist was employed by the Britton to produce sketches for his Beauties of England. A keen antiquary, Britton invested his resources into the recording and studying the prehistoric monuments of Britain. Prout made tours to Wiltshire in 1805 and 1806 and it seems likely that this watercolour is a result of one of these visits. The underdrawing of this watercolour, revealed through damage from light exposure, reveals a style close to that of Britton’s, therefore dating it to Prout’s time working with the antiquarian.

The study of Stonehenge, a prehistoric stone circle in the county of Wiltshire, developed during the eighteenth century as a result of a fascination with Britain’s ancient past. A pen and ink drawing by John Webb dated to 1650-55 in the British Museum (1981, 2.U.2116) visualises the original appearance of the standing stones. There are many representations of this monument from the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. As well as this watercolour by Prout, both Turner and and Constable represented the monument. For example see Constable’s famous watercolour from 1836 (V&A inventory number 1629-1888) and sketches made by Turner between 1799 and 1802 (see sketches in the Tate collection, inventory numbers: D04046 and D04090).

Prout’s composition is close to ‘Stonehenge in Wiltshire’ published in Boswell’s Picturesque Views of the Antiquities of England and Wales (1786). As with this engraving and Constable’s later watercolour, the site is shown underneath dramatic clouds, described by Redgrave as ‘rain clearing off from behind the Cromlech’ (See Redgrave, p.344). This observation of the climate reflects the growing Romantic interest in the effects of light and atmosphere whilst emphasising the monumentality of the stone circle.

References: R. Redgrave, Catalogue of Pictures at the South Kensington Museum, 1859
Subjects depicted
Places depicted
Collection
Accession number
FA.344

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Record createdOctober 10, 2011
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