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 > II. Various Perspective Diagrams > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram: Figure, with Outstretched Arms and Legs, Enclosed within a Square: Back View c.1812-28

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram: Figure, with Outstretched Arms and Legs, Enclosed within a Square: Back View’ c.1812-28
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram: Figure, with Outstretched Arms and Legs, Enclosed within a Square: Back View circa 1812–28
D40014
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 588 x 714 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | 1812’
Inscribed by an unknown hand in pencil ‘160’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made in connection with Turner’s lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, this diagram of a figure within a square is on the verso of a diagram of the same figure shown from the front and enclosed within a circle (D17137; Turner Bequest CXCV 166). Both appear related to a group of drawings illustrating the ways in which geometry enters into art; see also Tate D17138, D17139; Turner Bequest CXCV 167, 168 and especially notes to the last of these for their likely production after 1812 to supplement Turner’s discussion of the topic in Lecture 1.

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: Figure, with Outstretched Arms and Legs, Enclosed within a Square: Back View c.1812–28 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-figure-with-outstretched-arms-and-legs-r1136768, accessed 25 April 2024.