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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Sandycombe Lodge c.1808-12 > Windmill and Lock Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Notes on Ancient Greek Art c.1808-11

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Notes on Ancient Greek Art’ c.1808-11
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 8 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: Notes on Ancient Greek Art circa 1808–11
D07970
Turner Bequest CXIV 8
Pencil on white wove paper, 117 x 87 mm
Part watermark ‘tman | 8’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘8’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXIV – 8’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The top half of the page, turned vertically, is taken up with the following:
That the Greek whose paintings | above the Tympanums of the Pediment | [?has they ... replace] it by sculpture | in which case they only used the | [...] moulding that the sculpture | should not be hid from below.
Maurice Davies was unable to identify the source of these notes ‘on how the ancient Greeks intended their sculpture to be viewed’, but relates them to early drafts of Turner’s first Royal Academy perspective lecture,1 delivered in January 1811 (see the Introduction to the sketchbook).
1
Davies 1994, p.290.
Verso:
Blank, save for slight ink offsetting from the inscription on folio 9 recto opposite (D07971).

Matthew Imms
January 2012

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: Notes on Ancient Greek Art c.1808–11 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-inscription-by-turner-notes-on-ancient-greek-art-r1134746, accessed 26 April 2024.