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 Verso:
Inscription by Turner: Notes on Architectural Proportion and Perspective, from an Unidentified Source circa 1809
D07414
Turner Bequest CVIII 36a
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 88 x 115 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink (see main catalogue entry)
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The whole page is taken up with the following notes:
[?even] in Adoption tho not to be always | [?followd] is commended and of which [...] | one. too numerous of pla[...] the [...] | ev[...] [?intended] to bear the [...]ing | element under cover and as a [?vestibule] | to a staircase or the ma[...] | of Athenian temple to a private dwelling | the Cornice of the [‘Pedestal’ inserted above] Trajans column is | another instance of adoption tho.. | incoherent as to the adoption yet [...] | [...]
There is a small diagram at the foot of the page, showing the profile of a classical cornice, labelled ‘egg | Leaves’ and ‘egg long | Leaf’, and a further small diagram showing a section of moulding, labelled ‘[...]lno’.
The source of these passages on proportion in relation to architecture (including the Trajan and Antonine Columns in Rome) remains unidentified.1 Trajan’s Column also features in Turner’s notes on folios 34 recto, 35 recto, 35 verso, 37 recto, 37 verso and 61 verso (D07409, D07411, D07412, D07415, D07416, D07459); see also the entry for folio 33 verso (D07408). The present 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-r1136610, accessed 20 April 2024.