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 > II. Various Perspective Diagrams > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram: Figure, with Outstretched Arms and Legs, Enclosed within a Circle: Front View c.1812-28

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram: Figure, with Outstretched Arms and Legs, Enclosed within a Circle: Front View’ c.1812-28
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram: Figure, with Outstretched Arms and Legs, Enclosed within a Circle: Front View circa 1812–28
D17137
Turner Bequest CXCV 166
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 588 x 714 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | 1812’
Inscribed by Ruskin in red ink ‘166’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made in connection with Turner’s lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy this diagram of a figure within a circle appears related to a group of drawings illustrating the ways in which geometry enters into art (Tate D17138, D40014, D17139; Turner Bequest CXCV 167, 168). See note to D17139 for their probable function as supplements to Lecture 1 and date after 1812. On the verso (D40014) is a complete diagram of the same figure, seen from the back, now enclosed in a square.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower writes that the sheet is Elephant size Whatman paper made by William Balston, at Springfield Mill, Maidstone, Kent.
Verso:
See Tate D40014.

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: Figure, with Outstretched Arms and Legs, Enclosed within a Circle: Front View c.1812–28 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-figure-with-outstretched-arms-and-legs-r1136767, accessed 25 April 2024.