Portrait of Brook Taylor (1685-1731) 1720 (w/c & bodycolour on vellum laid on card)

English mathematician. The mathematician Brook Taylor was the son of John Taylor of Bifrons in Kent. In 1714 he published his solution to the problem of the centre of oscillation, and in the following year he was the first to write on the calculus of finite differences, which contained 'Taylor's Theorem'. Soon thereafter he published Linear Perspective (1715) and New Principles of Linear Perspective (1719), presumably the book he holds in his portrait. Taylor was wealthy, and, as his portrait suggests, was interested in music and painting. The small portrait hanging on the wall is presumably intended to be his first wife, a Miss Brydges.