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 Method for a Circle c.1822-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram: Perspective Method for a Circle’ c.1822-8
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram: Perspective Method for a Circle circa 1822–8
D17022
Turner Bequest CXCV 52
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 550 x 757 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | TURKEY MILL | 1822’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour ‘Kirby’ bottom centre and with various initial letters within diagram
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘52’ 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, Turner’s diagram is based on one by John Joshua Kirby (1716–74) in Dr Brook Taylor’s Method of Perspective Made Easy; both in Theory and Practice (London 1768, vol.II, pl.XII, fig.7). Kirby used it to illustrate how to depict circular stairs in perspective. Turner’s lecture diagram would have supplemented existing lecture material.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower writes that the sheet is Small Imperial 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 ‘50’ 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 Method for a Circle 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-method-for-a-circle-r1136750, accessed 26 April 2024.