Turner Bequest CXCV 1, 2, 4–12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 36, 51, 52, 105, 137–40
See Introduction, Royal Academy Perspective Lectures: Sketchbook, Diagrams and Related Material circa 1809–28. The diagrams in the present subset are based on plates in Dr Brook Taylor’s Method of Perspective Made Easy; both in Theory and Practice: in Two Books (London 1768) by John Joshua Kirby (1716–74). Turner owned a copy of this book which had come to him from his friend Henry Scott Trimmer, a descendant of Kirby’s. It was a convenient introduction of the theories of Dr Brook Taylor (1685–1731), who had invented the term ‘vanishing point’ and demonstrated its operation for the first time. The concordance indicates the plates adapted by Turner in order of their appearance in the book.
Source in Kirby 1768 | Tate | Turner Bequest | Subject |
Vol.I, pl.I, fig.1 | D16977 | CXCV 8 | Ray of Light |
Vol.I, pl.II, fig.4 | D16973 | CXCV 4 | Eye and Vision |
Vol.I, pl.II, figs.7 and 8 | D17006 | CXCV 36 | Rays of Light |
Vol.I, pl.II, fig.9 | D16989 | CXCV 20 | Rays of Light |
Vol.I, pl.II, fig.10 | D17021 | CXCV 51 | Rays of Light |
Vol.II, pl.I, fig.1 | D16971 | CXCV 2 | Standard Perspective |
Vol.II, pl.I, fig.1 | D16970 | CXCV 1 | Picture Plane and Spectator |
Vol.II, pl.I, fig.10 | D16986 | CXCV 17 | Object Lying Flat |
Vol.II, pl.II, fig.1 | D16974 | CXCV 5 | Height of the Eye |
vol.II, pl.II, figs.2 and 4 | D16975 | CXCV 6 | Two Methods for a Cube |
Vol.II, pl.II, fig.2 | D16981 | CXCV 12 | Method for a Cube |
Vol.II, pl.III, fig.3 | D16979 | CXCV 10 | Method for Vanishing Points |
vol.II, pl.IV, fig.4 | D16976 | CXCV 7 | Equilaterial Triangle |
vol.II, pl.IV, fig.5 | D16980 | CXCV 11 | Cube |
vol.II, pl.IX, fig.4 | D17109 | CXCV 138 | Building |
vol.II, pl.XII, fig.1 | D17075 | CXCV 105 | Capital |
vol.II, pl.XII, fig.7 | D17022 | CXCV 52 | Circle |
vol.II, pl.XIII, fig.4 | D17108 | CXCV 137 | Building |
vol.II, pl.XVI, fig.4 | D17111 | CXCV 140 | Reflections |
vol.II, pl.XVI, fig.4 | D17110 | CXCV 139 | Reflections |
vol.II, pl.XIX, fig.4 | D16978 | CXCV 9 | Cube by Vredeman de Vries |
vol.II, pl.XIX, fig.5 | D16983 | CXCV 14 | Cube by Dubreuil |
vol.II, pl.XIX, fig.6 | D16984 | CXCV 15 | Cube by Pozzo |
Supported by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
How to cite
Andrea Fredericksen, ‘IV. Diagrams after John Joshua Kirby’s Dr Brook Taylor’s Method of Perspective c.1817–28’, subset, 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