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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Perspective lectures c.1809-28 > Perspective Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagram of the Geometry of a Parabola, after John Hamilton c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of the Geometry of a Parabola, after John Hamilton’ c.1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
Diagram of the Geometry of a Parabola, after John Hamilton circa 1809
D07385
Turner Bequest CVIII 18
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 88 x 115 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink with letters ‘D’, ‘O’, ‘D’, ‘L’, ‘A’, ‘M’, etc. at various points on the diagram
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘18’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CVIII – 18’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Davies has identified the whole sequence of notes and diagrams running from folio 15 verso to folio 18 verso (D40670, D07381–D07384, this page and D07386) as taken from John Hamilton, Stereography, or, a Compleat Body of Perspective, in All Its Branches, London 1738.1 Turner could have consulted the copy at the British Museum (since transferred to the British Library, London).
This diagram, taken from Hamilton’s plate 29 figure 84 no.1, was used as the basis of one of two versions of Turner’s perspective lecture diagram 22, headed ‘Hamilton’ and showing the geometry of a parabola, as noted by Davies2 and Andrea Fredericksen (see entry for Tate D17035; Turner Bequest CXCV 65); however, when Turner used it again for the similar diagram 23, he incorrectly headed it ‘Emmerson’3 (see entry for Tate D17037; Turner Bequest CXCV 67). There is a related diagram from Hamilton on folio 17 verso opposite (D07384), together with text explaining the present drawing.

Matthew Imms
June 2008

1
Davies 1994, p.288.
2
Ibid., p.255.
3
Davies 1992, p.107 note 45; for Turner’s finished diagram, see fig.30.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Diagram of the Geometry of a Parabola, after John Hamilton c.1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2008, 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-diagram-of-the-geometry-of-a-parabola-after-john-hamilton-r1136581, accessed 20 April 2024.