'Lecture Diagram: Method for Finding the Diameter of the Earth', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Lecture Diagram: Method for Finding the Diameter of the Earth

From II. Various Perspective Diagrams

Date c.1817-28

MediumGraphite and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 490 x 695 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D17146

Turner Bequest CXCV 175

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Lecture Diagram: Method for Finding the Diameter of the Earth circa 1817–28

D17146
Turner Bequest CXCV 175

Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 490 x 695 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | TURKEY MILLS | 1817’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour over pencil various initial letters within diagram Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘175’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Made in connection with Turner’s lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, this diagram is related to a sketch in a manuscript used for lecturing on geometry.1 There, Turner describes a method for finding ‘the diameter of the earth’ in order to discuss ‘a natural kind of trigonometry of vision’.

Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 X folio 29.

Technical notes:

Peter Bower (unpublished notes)1 writes that the sheet is Super Royal size Whatman paper made by Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth, at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent.

Notes in Tate catalogue files.

Verso:

Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘168’ bottom left.

Andrea Fredericksen
January 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.