Vanishing Point

"J.M.W. Turner was Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy for thirty years (1807-37). Although an awkward public speaker, Turner captivated his audience with the remarkable perspective drawings he produced for his lectures. One contemporary deemed them 'truly beautiful, speaking intelligibly to the eye if his language did not to the ear.' for the most part the drawings are rendered in bold strokes of red and black watercolour, many recalling to the twenty-first century viewer the Constructivist experiments of the early modernist era." "Vanishing Point reproduces in full colour a representative selection of these works, many of which have never previously been published. An accompanying essay by Turner scholar Andrea Fredericksen provides a history of these almost forgotten drawings, gives their sources and subjects, and recounts how Turner used them in his lectures. Of equal fascination to students of graphic design, architecture and contemporary art as to lovers of Turner, this publication adds a new dimension to our appreciation of Britain's greatest painter."--BOOK JACKET.