Joseph Mallord William Turner

As Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, Turner began Lecture 2 with a discussion of Thomas Malton’s first theorem on vision as it relates to perspective1; see Diagram 11 (Tate D17145; Turner Bequest CXCV 174). He then turns to Theorem II which he describes as showing how ‘parallel right lines appear to approach each other and meet in a point in an infinite distance’.2 He refers to a diagram numbered ‘12’, but as Davies observes, the present one ‘does not seem to illustrate the theorem’. On the diagram itself, Turner attributes the method illustrated to Samuel Wale (?1721–1786), first Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy. Wale is not known to have published anything on the subject, but Maurice Davies explains that Turner may have had access to unpublished material.3 There is a sketch related to the diagram in Turner’s first draft of Lecture 2.4

Technical notes:

Peter Bower states that the sheet is Royal size Whatman made by William Balston and Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth, at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent. He writes that ‘all the group of papers with 1794 dates in the watermark show considerable process dirt and poor formation’. He attributes a lack of quality control to James Whatman’s stroke and the change of ownership at the mill.1

Verso:

Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘58’ bottom left.