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 > IV. Diagrams after John Joshua Kirby's ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital c.1822-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital’ c.1822-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital circa 1822–8
D17075
Turner Bequest CXCV 105
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 683 x 931 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | TURKEY MILL | 1822’
Inscribed by Turner in black watercolour ‘Kirby’ bottom centre and in red and black watercolour with various initial letters and numbers within diagram
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘105’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Prepared in connection with his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, this diagram of a Corinthian capital was made by Turner to supplement existing lecture material. Finberg states that it is a perspective construction of the same pillar illustrated in Diagrams 53 (Tate D17073) and 54 (Tate D17074). Turner may have used it in his discussion of the architectural orders.1 It is based on a diagram from Dr Brook Taylor’s Method of Perspective Made Easy; both in Theory and Practice: in Two Books (London 1768, vol.II, pl.XII, fig.1) by John Joshua Kirby (1716–74). Kirby’s book shows the three figures separately to illustrate how to put a Corinthian capital in perspective.
1
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 F folio 18.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower writes that the sheet is Royal size Whatman paper made by Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth, at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent.1
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘101a’ bottom left.

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: Perspective Construction of a Corinthian Capital c.1822–8 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-perspective-construction-of-a-corinthian-r1136749, accessed 19 April 2024.