Stonehenge with a carriage and travellers on horseback

This intriguing painting of Stonehenge is a product of the period in which interest in the nation’s historic, as well as pre-historic, past grew enormously. As the eighteenth century progressed, so did the practice of archaeological studies, including that in regards to Stonehenge. In the past, scholarly thought on the subject had been fantastical at times – from fabled giants creating the site to Geoffrey of Monmouth positing that the stones were conjured there from Ireland by Merlin, in honour of massacred Saxons. The seventeenth century saw few more sensible ideas with arguments for Roman or Danish heritage. It was not until 1740, with the publication of William Stukeley’s volumes with careful consideration of the site, that interest toward Stonehenge took a more serious turn and several topographically accurate engravings were reproduced.

Little detail is known of Ross' life, though it appears that he worked mainly in the West Country and painted in a manner similar to Jan Wyck, Peter Tillemans and John Wootton. It has been proposed that the carriage in the present lot is that of a patron of the artist, the Duke of Beaufort, whose hunting lodge was nearby and whose hunt at Stonehenge was at one time painted by Wootton.