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: Anamorphic Perspective c.1817-28

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram: Anamorphic Perspective’ c.1817-28
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram: Anamorphic Perspective circa 1817–28
D17107
Turner Bequest CXCV 136
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 488 x 693 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | TURKEY MILLS | 1817’
Inscribed by Turner in red and black watercolour over pencil various initial letters and numbers within diagram
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘136’ 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 head within a grid works along with another diagram (Tate D17106; Turner Bequest CXCV 135, and see also D16988; Turner Bequest CXCV 19) to illustrate anamorphic perspective. This method produces a distorted image that appears in natural form only when viewed at a special angle or reflected from a curved mirror.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower (unpublished notes)1 writes that the sheet is Super Royal size Whatman paper made by Finch and Thomas Robert Hollingworth, at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent.
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions by unknown hands in pencil ‘130’ bottom left and ‘LP6 Antiq | CXCV [crossed out]’ bottom right

Andrea Fredericksen
January 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

How to cite

Andrea Fredericksen, ‘Lecture Diagram: Anamorphic Perspective c.1817–28 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 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-anamorphic-perspective-r1136788, accessed 23 April 2024.