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 > Perspective Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Perspective Diagram, from an Unidentified Source c.1809

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Perspective Diagram, from an Unidentified Source’ c.1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Recto:
Perspective Diagram, from an Unidentified Source circa 1809
D07490
Turner Bequest CVIII 81
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 88 x 115 mm
Part watermark ‘man | 8’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘81’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CVIII – 81’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Maurice William Davies, ‘J.M.W. Turner’s Approach to Perspective in his Royal Academy Lectures of 1811’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, London 1994, p.289
Maurice Davies has not identified the source of this diagram,1 presumably taken from a published treatise. It appears to be a method of showing a circle in perspective. In view of these uncertainties, the correct orientation of the drawing is unclear.

Matthew Imms
June 2008

1
Davies 1994, p.289.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Perspective Diagram, from an Unidentified Source c.1809 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2008, 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-perspective-diagram-from-an-unidentified-source-r1136686, accessed 25 April 2024.