'Perspective Study of a Corinthian Entablature', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Perspective Study of a Corinthian Entablature

From V. Miscellaneous Preparatory Perspective Material

Date c.1810

MediumPen and ink, graphite and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 544 x 380 mm

Collection

Tate

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

Reference

D17080

Turner Bequest CXCV 110

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

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Perspective Study of a Corinthian Entablature circa 1810

D17080
Turner Bequest CXCV 110

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on white wove paper, 544 x 380 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘110’ top right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

This perspective construction of a Corinthian entablature is partly based on diagrams from John Joshua Kirby’s The Perspective of Architecture (1761, pl.XXVII, fig.B and pl.XXIX, fig.B). Turner does not seem to have developed the pen and wash drawing into a full-scale diagram for his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy. However, Maurice Davies relates the subject to Turner’s discussion of the problems of circles in standard perspective, where the artist refers to the Corinthian capital and particularly to the crushed appearance of the entablature.

Technical notes:

Peter Bower states that the sheet is Imperial size paper made by James Whatman the younger at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent.1

Notes in Tate catalogue files.

Verso:

Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘105’ top left

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.