Joseph Mallord William Turner

Prepared by Turner for Lecture 3 as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, Diagram 40* depicts a perspective method for a circle described and illustrated in A Compleat Treatise on Perspective in Theor and Practice on the True Principles of Dr Brook Taylor (1775, pl.X, fig.49) by the elder Thomas Malton (1726–1801). According to Maurice Davies, Turner’s lecture text does not accurately represent the information given in Malton’s treatise.1 Since there is another diagram numbered 40 (Tate D17058; Turner Bequest CXCV 88) this starred item may have been a reserve illustration, or supplementary to Diagrams 38 and 39 representing methods for drawing a circle (Tate D17055, D17056; Turner Bequest CXCV 85, 86).

Technical notes:

Peter Bower states that the sheet is Super Royal size Whatman paper made by William Balston and Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent. He writes that ‘all the sheets in this batch have some streaking across the sheet, probably from a fault in the sizing’.1

Verso:

Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘T.L.444’ top left and ‘88’ bottom left.