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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 8/3: Elevation of a Stoa or Portico (after James Stuart) c.1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram 8/3: Elevation of a Stoa or Portico (after James Stuart) circa 1810
D17142
Turner Bequest CXCV 171
Pen and ink, pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 590 x 724 mm
Watermarked ‘1801 | J WHATMAN’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour ‘8/3’ top right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘171’ and ‘170’ (crossed out) bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg mistook the subject of this diagram for the colonnade of Carlton House, London, for which see Diagram 8/9 (Tate D17143; Turner Bequest CXCV 172). Instead, it is a side elevation of a classical stoa or portico based on plates published in James ‘Athenian’ Stuart’s and Nicholas Revett’s The Antiquities of Athens (1762, vol.I, chap.V, pls.II and IV). It is one of three diagrams made by Turner from these illustrations for his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy (see also Tate D17140 and D17141; Turner Bequest CXCV 169, 170). Stuart and Revett describe the building as one ‘commonly supposed to be the remains of the Temple of Jupiter Olympus’ (the Olympieion).
After presenting his second illustration, a side elevation rendered in simple outline (D17141), Turner shows another view of the same building, now with colour and shading. He hopes his examples will deter students from applying atmospheric perspective to their geometric drawings in a quest to receive the Academy’s prize ‘Premium’ in architecture.1 While these pictorial effects lend the scene more spatial depth, the drawing still does not convey the number of columns along the building’s front. Hence Turner argues that geometric drawings and perspective views, while equally important, should remain separate.
Turner does not discuss Stuart and Revett’s plan or elevations in the version of Lecture 1 delivered in 1811, although a reference to ‘Stuart’s Athens Drawing’ pencilled in the margins of the text indicates that he may have introduced the topic in subsequent re-workings of the material.2 A later manuscript also used for lecturing refers directly to all three diagrams.3 Turner also discusses the material in lecture manuscript titled ‘Light, Shade, and Reflexies’.4 There is a preliminary sketch in a manuscript filled with Turner’s notes.5
1
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 J folio 12.
2
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 K folio 13.
3
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 J folio 13.
4
Private collection, folio 21–22.
5
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 BB folio 33.
Verso:
Indications of transfer process (see Tate D40015).

Andrea Fredericksen
June 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

How to cite

Andrea Fredericksen, ‘Lecture Diagram 8/3: Elevation of a Stoa or Portico (after James Stuart) c.1810 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2004, revised by David Blayney Brown, 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-lecture-diagram-83-elevation-of-a-stoa-or-portico-after-r1136469, accessed 28 March 2024.