John Wallis

Image credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

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John Wallis was a mathematician who played a part in the development of modern calculus and is credited with introducing the symbol for infinity. Having discovered a facility for codebreaking, Wallis became a cryptographer on behalf of the Parliamentary party during the Civil War. He was a founding member of the Royal Society, and contributed more than sixty papers and several reviews of mathematical books to the society's Philosophical Transactions. In 1649, Wallis was appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. He held his professorship for over half a century, and became known as one of the leading mathematicians of his time.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

John Wallis

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 74.9 x W 62.9 cm

Accession number

578

Acquisition method

Transferred from the British Museum, 1879

Work type

Painting

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