'Perspective Method for a Cube (after Jean Pélerin)', Joseph Mallord William Turner | Tate

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Perspective Method for a Cube (after Jean Pélerin)

From I. Numbered Perspective Diagrams

Date c.1810

MediumGraphite and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 672 x 999 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D40002

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Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Perspective Method for a Cube (after Jean Pélerin) circa 1810

D40002

Pencil and watercolour on wove paper, 672 x 999 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | 1808’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘1505’ top centre
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘73’ bottom left

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

This unfinished diagram illustrates a perspective method for a cube proposed by Jean Pélerin (‘Viator’). It appears on the verso of Diagram 27 (Tate D17041; Turner Bequest CXCV 71), which depicts a similar diagram also loosely based on an illustration from Pélerin’s De Artificiali Perspectiva (1505, pl.1, centre diagram). See catalogue note to the recto for the source, and for the paper used for the drawings.

Andrea Fredericksen
June 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.

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Context

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Tate Collection

Gifts and bequests

Turner Bequest