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Print made by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851, British, Stonehenge at Daybreak, 1815 to 1819
- Title:
- Stonehenge at Daybreak
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1815 to 1819
- Materials & Techniques:
- Mezzotint, printed in brown ink; modern impression on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 11 1/4 × 15 3/4 inches (28.6 × 40 cm), Plate: 8 3/4 × 11 3/8 inches (22.2 × 28.9 cm), Image: 7 1/2 × 10 3/8 inches (19.1 × 26.4 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, lower left: "81"; inscribed on verso in graphite, lower left: "Turner- unpublished 'Liber' "; lower center: "Stonehenge at Daybreak - Reprint in the 1870s from the unfinished State"; lower right: "(Z.W. July 43)"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1977.14.13969
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Access:
- Accessible in the Study Room [Request]
- Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:38730
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
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According to Turner, all landscapes belong to one of six fundamental categories: Architectural, Historical, Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, and Elevated Pastoral. These prints are part of a systematic publication, the Liber Studiorum (“Book of Studies”), containing examples from each of these categories. This work provides further testimony to the enduring influence of Claude Lorrain. Claude made sepia ink and wash drawings to record all his authentic compositions and brought them together to form his celebrated Liber Veritatis (“Book of Truth”). These drawings came to be seen as the epitome of the art of landscape and were later reproduced as fine mezzotints. They inspired Turner to make his own, even more ambitious equivalents. Though imitating the format and sepia coloring of Claude’s drawings, Turner’s plates were intended not as a record of his paintings but to illustrate his own original theory of landscape art. Although never completely finished, the Liber Studiorum is among the artist’s most personal and pioneering contributions to the practice of printmaking. Gallery label for J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality (Yale Center for British Art, March - 29, 2025 - July 27, 2025)
Turner and the Sublime (British Museum, 1981-05-15 - 1981-09-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
Turner and the Sublime (Yale Center for British Art, 1981-02-11 - 1981-04-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
Turner and the Sublime (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1980-11-01 - 1981-01-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
Sam Smiles, British Art Ancient Landscapes, Paul Holberton Publishing, London, p. 66, cat. 18, ND1442.G7 S55 2017 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]
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