The Opening of the First Eddystone Lighthouse in 1698
Date:
ca. 1703
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
24 1/4 x 54 inches (61.6 x 137.2 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.450
Gallery Label:
For centuries the Eddystone Rocks, off the coast of Cornwall, had caused the wreck of ships approaching Plymouth, and in 1692 the Admiralty issued a call for designs for a lighthouse to be built there. The artist, inventor, and engineer Henry Winstanley was awarded the project, and construction began in 1696. While on the reef on June 25, 1697, he was taken prisoner by a French privateer; only after Louis XIV ordered his release was construction completed, in November 1698. The lighthouse was successfully in use until 1703, when that year’s “Great Storm” destroyed it, perhaps fulfilling Winstanley’s desire to be inside his lighthouse during “the greatest storm that ever blew under the face of the heavens,” but killing him in the process. Peter Monamy's painting is a composite, culled from various printed materials available to the artist long after the original structure was destroyed. The absolute calm belies the history of and reasons for the lighthouse’s construction.
