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 75: Interior of a Prison c.1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram 75: Interior of a Prison’ c.1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram 75: Interior of a Prison circa 1810
D17099
Turner Bequest CXCV 128
Pen, ink and watercolour over transfer ink on white wove paper, 710 x 510 mm
Watermarked ‘HAYES & WISE | 1799’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour ‘75’ top left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Prepared by Turner for his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, Diagram 66 is one of three views of a prison interior based on an etching from Piranesi’s Prima Parte de Architettura e Prospettiva (1743, pl.2). See especially note to Diagram 65 (Tate D17090; Turner Bequest CXCV 120) for their likely connection with illustrations of the production of shadows and with a lecture manuscript. The third prison is Diagram 66 (Tate D17901; Turner Bequest CXCV 121).
For other references to Piranesi among the lecture diagrams see Tate D17123, D17124, D17072; Turner Bequest CXCV 152, 153, 102.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower states that the sheet is Imperial size paper made by John Hayes and John Wise, at Padsole Mill, Maidstone, Kent.1
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscription by unknown hands ‘122’ bottom left and ‘CXCV – 128 | POGTF L3(1)’ top right.

Andrea Fredericksen
June 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

How to cite

Andrea Fredericksen, ‘Lecture Diagram 75: Interior of a Prison c.1810 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2004, revised by David Blayney Brown, January 2012, 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-75-interior-of-a-prison-r1136545, accessed 20 April 2024.