Joseph Mallord William Turner

Lecture Diagram: Two Equilateral Triangles

c.1817–28

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: II. Various Perspective Diagrams
Medium: Graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 492 × 687 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D16996
Turner Bequest CXCV 26 a

Catalogue entry

Made in connection with Turner’s lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, this diagram of two equilateral triangles is related to sketches in his notes, which suggests that he used it, along with another diagram of triangles numbered ‘3’, ‘4’, and ‘5’(Tate D16998), in later lectures on geometry.1

Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 W folios 2, 4.

Technical notes:

Peter Bower (unpublished notes)1 writes that the sheet is Super Royal size Whatman paper made by Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth, at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent.

Notes in Tate catalogue files.

Verso:

Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘6’ bottom left

Andrea Fredericksen
January 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

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