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 Diagrams, after Salomon de Caus c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Perspective Diagrams, after Salomon de Caus’ c.1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 3 Recto:
Perspective Diagrams, after Salomon de Caus circa 1809
D07359
Turner Bequest CVIII 3
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 88 x 115 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink towards top (see main catalogue entry), and ‘art of drawing from the Life’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘3’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CVIII – 3’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Between the two diagrams, with reference to the upper (of a two-storey building), Turner notes: ‘it is [?evident] that by the circle that the upper window must smaller | by the circle, but it does not say how the difference is to be found | Salomon de Cavs 1612’. At the foot of the page is the concluding phrase of the long inscription opposite (folio 2 verso; D07358), relating the origins of ancient art.
Maurice Davies has identified the notes and diagrams on folios 3 recto to 4 verso (this page and D07360–D07362) as taken from Salomon de Caus, La Perspective avec la raison des ombres et miroirs, London 1612 (see also folio 54 verso; D07450), in the present case from the unpaginated folio 5 recto. The same passages are translated from the French in Turner’s perspective lecture manuscripts, though apparently not in his hand.1

Matthew Imms
June 2008

1
Davies 1994, pp.98, 287, 298 note 23; Davies notes the translations as in Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 BB folios 62 recto, verso.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Perspective Diagrams, after Salomon de Caus 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-diagrams-after-salomon-de-caus-r1136554, accessed 25 April 2024.