Joseph Mallord William Turner

Lecture Diagram 20: Conic Sections (after Thomas Malton Senior)

c.1810

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: I. Numbered Perspective Diagrams
Medium: Graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 674 x 1000 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D17033
Turner Bequest CXCV 63

Catalogue entry

In a section on curvilinear perspective in Lecture 2, given as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, Turner addressed the role of conic sections,1 presenting Diagram 20 to illustrate how the theory of these enters into the perspective representation of circles.2It incorporates elements from several illustrations found in A Compleat Treatise on Perspective in Theory and Practice on the True Principles of Dr Brook Taylor (1775) by the elder Thomas Malton (1726–1801); see pl.VII, figs.29 and 30. Together with the right-hand portion of Diagram 19 (Tate D17032; Turner Bequest CXCV 62), the drawing shows ‘some of the arrangements that can arise when the circle is not on the axis of the eye. In these cases the cone is skewed, or “scalene”’.3 Turner also sketched the diagram in his lecture notes.4

Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 BL MS L folio 9 and verso. For earlier versions of related lecture material, see D folio 5 and E folio 10 verso.

Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 BL MS L folio 9 verso. For earlier versions of related lecture material, see E folio 10 verso.

Davies 1994, p.164.

Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 BL MS L folio 9 verso.

Technical notes:

Peter Bower states that the sheet is Double Elephant size Whatman paper made by William Balston, at Springfield Mill, Maidstone, Kent. The largest group within the perspective drawings, this batch of paper shows a ‘grid-like series of shadows that can be seen within the sheet in transmitted light. This appears to have been caused by a trial method of supporting the woven wire mould cover on the mould’. Because this is the only batch he has seen with such a feature, Bower believes that ‘it may have been tried on one pair of moulds and for some reason never tried again’. He also writes that it is ‘not the best Whatman paper by any means; the weight of this group is also very variable and the moulds have not been kept clean during use’1

Notes in Tate catalogue files.

Verso:

Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘65’ bottom left.

Andrea Fredericksen
June 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

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people(32,339)
- named individuals(9,912)
  - Malton, Thomas(16)
emotions, concepts and ideas(15,667)
- formal qualities(11,875)
  - diagrammatic(790)
  - perspective(215)

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Lecture Diagram 20: Conic Sections (after Thomas Malton Senior)

c.1810

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Catalogue entry

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Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 18: Principles of Rectilinear Perspective (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 19: Conic and Cylindrical Sections (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 40*: Perspective Method for a Circle (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 54: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 51: Perspective Construction of a Doric Entablature (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 11: Spheres at Different Distances from the Eye (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 21: Representation of a Globe in Perspective (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 24: Real and Apparent Diameters of Spheres (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 17: Principles of Rectilinear Perspective (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 72: An Ionic Capital (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 50: Doric Entablature in Perspective (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 53: Corinthian Capital in Perspective (after Thomas Malton Senior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 52: Perspective Constructions of an Ionic Capital (after Thomas Malton Senior and Jacques Androuet du Cerceau)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 58: Perspective Construction of Pulteney Bridge, Bath (after Thomas Malton Junior)

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 16, Later Renumbered 47: The Terminology of Perspective of Thomas Malton Junior

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