J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Perspective lectures c.1809-28 > II. Various Perspective Diagrams > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram: Various Steeples, Salisbury, Oxford and London c.1810-28

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram: Various Steeples, Salisbury, Oxford and London’ c.1810-28
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Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram: Various Steeples, Salisbury, Oxford and London circa 1810–28
D17113
Turner Bequest CXCV 142
Pencil and watercolour on wove paper 658 x 832 mm
Watermarked ‘J RUSE | 1800’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour ‘SARUM’, ‘C Oxford’ and ‘S Giles’ along bottom and by John Ruskin in red ink ‘142’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Drawn in connection with Turner’s lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, these details belong (from left to right) to Salisbury Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and the church of St Giles in the Fields, Holborn, London, by Henry Flitcroft. Turner considers various architectural elements when discussing ‘geometric forms of architecture in the province of the geometric laws of perspective’1 and refers to Christ Church and St. Giles in a manuscript used for lecturing sometime around 1818.2 For another illustration of Salisbury Cathedral’s steeple related to the lectures see Tate D17114; Turner Bequest CXCV 143.
1
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, c.1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 T folio 14 verso.
2
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, c.1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 T folios 14 verso-19 recto.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower (unpublished notes)1 writes that sheet is Pott Quad size J RUSE | 1800 paper made by Joseph Ruse, Upper Tovil Mill, Maidstone, Kent.
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscription by unknown hand in pencil ‘136’ bottom left

Andrea Fredericksen
January 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

How to cite

Andrea Fredericksen, ‘Lecture Diagram: Various Steeples, Salisbury, Oxford and London c.1810–28 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2004, revised by David Blayney Brown, January 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-lecture-diagram-various-steeples-salisbury-oxford-and-london-r1136774, accessed 19 May 2013.