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: Vaulted Arch in Perspective c.1822-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram: Vaulted Arch in Perspective’ c.1822-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram: Vaulted Arch in Perspective circa 1822–8
D17120
Turner Bequest CXCV 149
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 760 x 550 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | TURKEY MILL | 1822’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour ‘N1’ and ‘N2’ at centre and ‘No 3’ bottom right Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘149’ top right
 
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 vaulted arch has been linked by Judy Egerton to an earlier, more developed diagram of a prison interior based on an etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Tate D17099; Turner Bequest CXCV 128; see also Tate D17090, D17091; Turner Bequest CXCV 120, 121).1 Two later diagrams of ground plans marked ‘No 1’ and ‘N 2’ (Tate D17123, D17124; Turner Bequest CXCV 53, 54) may correspond to the present diagram marked ‘No 3’. If this is the case, the first two may be plans of the prison and all three might have supplemented lecture material on the production of shadows.2
1
Judy Egerton [and Clifford Ellis], ‘JMWT PP’: A Selection of Drawings Made by Turner to Illustrate his Royal Academy Lectures as Professor of Perspective, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1980, p.[5] under no.20.
2
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 BL MS BB folio 12 verso.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower (unpublished notes)1 states that the sheet is Imperial size Whatman paper made by Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth, at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent.
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘143’ top left.

Andrea Fredericksen
January 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

How to cite

Andrea Fredericksen, ‘Lecture Diagram: Vaulted Arch in Perspective c.1822–8 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-vaulted-arch-in-perspective-r1136797, accessed 24 April 2024.