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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Interior of the Ruined Oxford Street Pantheon (after fire) 1792 watercolor Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Moonlight with Ruin and Trees ca. 1795-97 chalk. gouache, watercolor Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Copy of Richard Wilson's Landscape with Bathers, Cattle and Ruin 1796-97 watercolor Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Capriccio with Dome of St Peter's, Rome seen through Ruined Triumphal Arch ca. 1797 gouache, watercolor Tate Gallery |
"The ideas ruins evoke in me are grand. Everything comes to nothing, everything perishes, everything passes, only the world remains, only time endures. How old is this world! I walk between two eternities. Wherever I cast my glance, the objects surrounding me announce death and compel my resignation to what awaits me. What is my ephemeral existence in comparison with that of a rock being worn down, of a valley being formed, of a forest that's dying, of those deteriorating masses suspended above my head? I see the marble of tombs crumble into powder, and I don't want to die! And I begrudge the effect on weak tissue of fibers and flesh of a general law that even bronze can't contravene! A torrent drags each and every nation into the depths of a common abyss: myself, I resolve to make a solitary stand at the edge and resist the currents flowing past me."
– from the Salon of 1767 by Denis Diderot, translated by John Goodman (Yale University Press, 1995)
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Cattle in a Stream with Ruins on the Bank ca. 1800 gouache, watercolor Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Moonlight among Ruins ca. 1820 watercolor Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Ruined Castle ca. 1825-38 gouache, watercolor Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Town with Ruined Castle on the Moselle ca. 1826 gouache Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Ruins of the Old Pont Eudes, Tours ca. 1826-28 gouache, watercolor (on blue paper) Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Ruined Péage near Champtoceaux, Loire Valley ca. 1826-28 gouache, watercolor (on blue paper) Tate Gallery |
"If the site of a ruin seems perilous, I shudder. If I feel safe and secure there, I'm freer, more alone, more myself, closer to myself. It's there that I call out to my friend, it's there that I miss my friend; it's there that we'd enjoy ourselves without anxiety, without witnesses, without intruders, without those jealous of us. It's there that I probe my own heart; it's there that I interrogate his, that I take alarm and reassure myself. Between this place and the abodes of the city, the native ground of tumult, the seat of interest, passion, vice, crime, prejudice, and error, the distance is great. If my soul were predisposed to tender feelings, I'd surrender to them without restraint; if my heart were calm, I'd savor the full sweetness of its quietude. In this vast, solitary, deserted sanctuary, I hear nothing. I'm isolated from life's difficulties; no one hurries me along and no one is within earshot; I can speak to myself out loud, give voice to my afflictions, and shed tears without restraint."
– from the Salon of 1767 by Denis Diderot, translated by John Goodman (Yale University Press, 1995)
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Caligula's Palace and Bridge 1831 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Ruined Castle on a Rock ca. 1834 gouache, watercolor Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Ruined Monastery at Wolf ca. 1839 gouache, watercolor Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner Bacchus and Ariadne 1840 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |