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 > I. Numbered Perspective Diagrams > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram 54: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital (after Thomas Malton Senior) c.1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram 54: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital (after Thomas Malton Senior)’ c.1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram 54: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital (after Thomas Malton Senior) circa 1810
D17074
Turner Bequest CXCV 104
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 678 x 995 mm
Watermarked ‘1801| J WHATMAN’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour ‘54’ top left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘104’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Like Diagram 53 (Tate D17073; Turner Bequest CXCV 103), this representation of a Corinthian capital is based in part on a diagram in A Compleat Treatise on Perspective in Theory and Practice on the True Principles of Dr Brook Taylor (1775, pl.XXII, fig.105) by the elder Thomas Malton (1726–1801). Turner used it as part of his discussion devoted to the Corinthian order in Lecture 4 as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy.1
1
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 M folio 19 and verso.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower states that the sheet is Double Elephant size Whatman paper made by William Balston and Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent.1
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Currently laid down.

Andrea Fredericksen
June 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2010

How to cite

Andrea Fredericksen, ‘Lecture Diagram 54: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital (after Thomas Malton Senior) c.1810 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2004, revised by David Blayney Brown, January 2010, 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-54-perspective-construction-of-a-corinthian-r1136523, accessed 16 April 2024.