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 A Diagram Indicating Perspective, Light or Reflections c.1808-11

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Diagram Indicating Perspective, Light or Reflections’ c.1808-11
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
A Diagram Indicating Perspective, Light or Reflections circa 1808–11
D07991
Turner Bequest CXIV 21
Pencil on white wove paper, 87 x 117 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘21’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXIV – 21’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Maurice Davies has listed the studies here, on folios 20 verso opposite and the verso (D07990, D07992) as ‘Perspective or reflective constructions’1 in relation to the preparations for Turner’s perspective lectures, delivered at the Royal Academy from January 1811 onwards (see the Introduction to the sketchbook). The three diagrams grow progressively more complex.
The stamped Turner number partly obscures a small disk drawn in pencil towards the bottom right, perhaps representing the sun or another light source. Alternatively it may be a letter ‘O’, relating to what is probably a capital ‘H’ at the centre right, indicating the horizon line.

Matthew Imms
January 2012

1
Davies 1994, p.290.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Diagram Indicating Perspective, Light or Reflections 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-a-diagram-indicating-perspective-light-or-reflections-r1134767, accessed 18 September 2024.