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 Inscription by Turner: Notes on Architectural Proportion and Perspective, from an Unidentified Source c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Notes on Architectural Proportion and Perspective, from an Unidentified Source’ c.1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: Notes on Architectural Proportion and Perspective, from an Unidentified Source circa 1809
D07413
Turner Bequest CVIII 36
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 88 x 115 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘36’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CVIII – 36’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The whole page is taken up with the following notes:
would have be lost by the surround | portico although he [...]ly from the | [...] part below when it | ev[...]y has ev[...] that he exh[...] | the whole would have seen this if | the error of con[...] every G[...] | when nothing like parr[...] perspective | can be seen. Architecture like | Painting has that sentiment which | con[...] the merit of one from the other
The source of these passages on proportion in relation to architecture (including the Trajan and Antonine Columns in Rome) remains unidentified.1 The notes run continuously from folio 35 recto to folio 37 verso (D07411–D07416).

Matthew Imms
June 2008

1
Davies 1994, p.288.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: Notes on Architectural Proportion and Perspective, 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-inscription-by-turner-notes-on-architectural-proportion-and-r1136609, accessed 25 April 2024.