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 Diagram of a Cube in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus c.1809

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagram of a Cube in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus’ c.1809
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 54 Verso:
Diagram of a Cube in Perspective, after Salomon de Caus circa 1809
D07450
Turner Bequest CVIII 54a
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 88 x 115 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink ‘Solomon du Cas 1612’ top centre and ‘accuses all the authors but does not | work in diagram of the cube by the means | here [?proposed]’ below diagram, towards bottom
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Davies has identified the diagrams as a demonstration of how to show a cube in perspective, taken from Salomon de Caus, La Perspective avec la raison des ombres et miroirs, London 1612, ‘Chapitre Deuxiesme’ (unpaginated), which Turner also copied twice on folio 7 verso (D07367), though without noting the method involved.1 There are further notes from the same source on folios 3 recto, 3 verso, 4 recto and 4 verso (D07359–D07362).
1
Davies 1994, pp.98, 289, 310 note 77.
Technical notes:
There is some offsetting from the unrelated ink diagram opposite on folio 55 recto (D07451), which partly overlaps with the diagram here.

Matthew Imms
June 2008

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Diagram of a Cube in Perspective, 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-diagram-of-a-cube-in-perspective-after-salomon-de-caus-r1136646, accessed 24 April 2024.