Painting - <I>Curve Tangents (Fermat)</I>
date: label: date made
content: 1966
name: label: referenced
content: Fermat, Pierre de
label: painter
content: Johnson, Crockett
notes: label: Description
content: The French lawyer and mathematician Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665) was one of the first to develop a systematic way to find the straight line which best approximates a curve at any point. This line is called the tangent line. This painting shows a curve with two horizontal tangent lines. Assuming that the curve is plotted against a horizontal axis, one line passes through a maximum of a curve, the other through a minimum. An article by H. W. Turnbull, "The Great Mathematicians," published in <I>The World of Mathematics</I> by James R. Newman, emphasized how Fermat's method might be applied to find maximum and minimum values of a curve plotted above a horizontal line (see his figures 14 and 16). Crockett Johnson owned and read the book, and annotated the first figure. The second figure more closely resembles the painting.
label: Description
content: Computing the maximum and minimum value of functions by finding tangents became a standard technique of the differential calculus developed by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz later in the 17th century.
label: Description
content: <I>Curve Tangents</I> is painting #12 in the Crockett Johnson series. It was executed in oil on masonite, completed in 1966, and is signed: CJ66. The painting has a wood and metal frame.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Crockett Johnson
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content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ruth Krauss in memory of Crockett Johnson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.1093.07
label: catalog number
content: 1979.1093.07
label: accession number
content: 1979.1093
objectType: label: Object Name
content: painting
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: masonite (substrate material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (frame material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (frame material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 48.2 cm x 63.5 cm; 19 in x 25 in