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 > V. Miscellaneous Preparatory Perspective ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Perspective Study of a Doric Entablature c.1810

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Perspective Study of a Doric Entablature’ c.1810
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Perspective Study of a Doric Entablature circa 1810
D17068
Turner Bequest CXCV 98
Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on white laid paper, 306 x 488 mm
Watermarked ‘PORTAL & BRIDGES’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner drew this Doric entablature as a preparatory study for diagrams to show during his lectures as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy. It is partly based on an illustration in A Compleat Treatise on Perspective in Theory and Practice on the Principles of Dr Brook Taylor (1775, pl.XVIII, fig.86) by the elder Thomas Malton (1726–1801).1 Discussing its preparation, Maurice Davies explains that Turner
selected a perspective centre point near to the bottom right-hand corner of the sheet and set off accurate measurements of the entablature on a horizontal line across the top of the drawing. He used these to produce, near the top of the sheet, a plan of the object in perspective. This plan was built up with great care and includes details such as the exact position of each part of each triglyph. He constructed the final representation of the entablature directly beneath the plan and then added the shadows.2
Davies adds that the shadows do not seem to have been geometrically constructed, but were done most likely by eye.
1
Davies 1994, p.118.
2
Davies 1992, p.58.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower states that the sheet is Royal Laid size paper made by Joseph Portal and William Bridges, at Bere or Laverstoke Mills, Hampshire.1
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank

Andrea Fredericksen
June 2004

Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Revised by David Blayney Brown
January 2012

How to cite

Andrea Fredericksen, ‘Perspective Study of a Doric Entablature c.1810 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-perspective-study-of-a-doric-entablature-r1136805, accessed 26 April 2024.