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 55: Perspective Construction of a Tuscan Entablature c.1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram 55: Perspective Construction of a Tuscan Entablature’ c.1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram 55: Perspective Construction of a Tuscan Entablature circa 1810
D17076
Turner Bequest CXCV 106
Pencil chalk and watercolour on white wove paper, 659 x 837 mm
Watermarked ‘J. RUSE | 1800’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour ‘55’ top left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘106’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Diagram 55 is a perspective construction of a Tuscan entablature. In his discussion of the architectural orders in Lecture 4 as Professor Perspective at the Royal Academy, Turner compares it together with Diagram 56 (Tate D17079; Turner Bequest CXCV 109) to Diagrams 53 and 54 (Tate D17073, D17074; Turner Bequest CXCV 103, 104) which are both examples of the Corinthian order.1 Indications of transfer process on the back indicate that he traced the drawing to make the guiding lines of Diagram 56 (Tate D17079, see also D17077).
1
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 M folio 19 verso.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower writes that the sheet is Pott Quad size paper made by Joseph Ruse, at Upper Tovil Mill, Maidstone, Kent.1
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
See D40006.

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 55: Perspective Construction of a Tuscan Entablature 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-55-perspective-construction-of-a-tuscan-r1136524, accessed 25 April 2024.