Sphere Surface with Longitudinals and Latitudinals
1958
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
graphite on tracing paper
Dimensions
overall: 36.7 x 30.3 cm (14 7/16 x 11 15/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Seymour and Iris Schwartz Collection
Accession Number
1978.90.33
Art Historical Context
In 1958, Dutch artist M.C. Escher *Sphere Surface with Longitudinals Latitudinals*, a graphite drawing on tracing paper 36.7 x 30.3 cm. This work captures a precisely rendered grid of longitudinal and latitudinal lines wrapping around a spherical surface, evoking the mathematical elegance of a globe's coordinate system. Escher, renowned for his mind-bending prints and tessellations, used tracing paper to achieve the translucent overlays and exacting lines that defined his later explorations in geometry. Escher's fascination with non-Euclidean space peaked in the 1950s, as seen in this piece f...
About the Artist
M.C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was a Dutch graphic artist renowned for his mathematically-inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints featuring impossible constructions, tessellations, and explorations of infinity. Though he considered himself lacking in mathematical ability, Escher's work demonstrates profound intuitive understanding of geometry, symmetry, and spatial paradox. A transform...