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 > III. Diagrams after Samuel Cunn's ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Lecture Diagram: 'Euclid's Elements of Geometry', Book 4, Proposition 5 c.1817-28

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Lecture Diagram: 'Euclid's Elements of Geometry', Book 4, Proposition 5’ c.1817-28
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Lecture Diagram: ‘Euclid’s Elements of Geometry’, Book 4, Proposition 5 circa 1817–28
D17003
Turner Bequest CXCV 33
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 584 x 874 mm
Watermarked ‘J WHATMAN | 1817’
Inscribed by Turner in red watercolour ‘4 | Circles within a Triangle’ top centre, ‘[...] 2’ centre left and ‘3 Lastly’ centre right, and in black watercolour with various initial letters within diagram
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘33’ 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 of two triangles within circles – inexplicably inscribed ‘Circles within a Triangle’ – completes Proposition 5 from Book 4 of Samuel Cunn’s Euclid’s Elements of Geometry (London 1759, Book 4). See Tate D17004; Turner Bequest CXCV 34 for the initial portion. Cunn defines the proposition as ‘Problem: To describe a circle about a given triangle’.1 There are sketches of both figures in Turner’s lecture notes.2
1
Cunn 1759, pp.105–6.
2
Turner, ‘Royal Academy Lectures’, circa 1807–38, Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library, London, ADD MS 46151 V folio 21 verso.
Technical notes:
Peter Bower states that the sheet is Colombier size Whatman paper made by William Balston, at Springfield Mill, Maidstone, Kent.1
1
Notes in Tate catalogue files.
Verso:
Blank, save for an inscription by an unknown hand in pencil ‘13’ 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: ‘Euclid’s Elements of Geometry’, Book 4, Proposition 5 c.1817–28 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-euclids-elements-of-geometry-book-4-r1136712, accessed 19 May 2024.