A short history of the impossible
From a medieval manuscript to a 13.5-metre sculpture.
How this site works. Every fact is in our own words and linked to its source, beside it. Where good sources disagree, we show each version in a “Sources differ” box. Every drawing is our own.
- c. 1025 The oldest impossible scene Bach knows is the Madonna and Child in the Pericope of Henry II, from around 1025, though he thinks that one was probably not on purpose. Michael Bach
- 1754 Bach lists Josef Albers’s “Rolled Wrongly” from 1931 and Hogarth’s Satire on False Perspective from 1754. Michael Bach
- 1832 L. A. Necker was a Swiss mineralogist who came across the flip by chance while looking at a drawing of a cube-like crystal. He described it in 1832. Michael Bach
- 1915 Oscar Reutersvärd was born in Stockholm in 1915. Escher in The Palace
- 1931 Bach lists Josef Albers’s “Rolled Wrongly” from 1931 and Hogarth’s Satire on False Perspective from 1754. Michael Bach
- 1934 In 1934, aged only 18, he drew an impossible triangle while sketching cubes in perspective. Escher in The Palace
- 1937 He designed an impossible staircase in 1937. Escher in The Palace
- 1954 Escher’s solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum ran from 27 August to 26 September 1954. Escher in The Palace There Roger Penrose and the geometer Donald Coxeter first came across Escher’s work. Escher in The Palace
- February 1958 Lionel and Roger Penrose published it in the British Journal of Psychology, volume 49, in February 1958. Escher in The Palace
- May 1958 Belvedere is a lithograph from May 1958. mcescher.com
- March 1960 Escher finished Ascending and Descending on 18 March 1960. Escher in The Palace
- October 1961 Waterfall is a lithograph from October 1961. mcescher.com
- 1964 It was first published in The American Journal of Psychology in 1964. Illusions Index
- 1965 René Magritte painted an impossible scene too: “Carte blanche”, 1965. Michael Bach
- 1968 In 1968 Richard Gregory made a wooden object that looks like a real impossible triangle from one position only; from anywhere else it is clearly three joined struts. Illusions Index
- 1982 Sweden honoured him with a stamp in 1982. MathWorld
- 1984 His early discoveries stayed hidden for decades: Roger Penrose only found out in 1984 that Reutersvärd had drawn the triangle and the stairs first. Escher in The Palace
- November 1999 Western Australia’s planning minister unveiled it on 5 November 1999. WA Government, 1999
- 2010 The Penrose stairs appear in Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception. Escher in The Palace
- 2011 In 2011 a German design student known as mcwolles built a wooden copy of Waterfall’s water path, which seems to run uphill. Michael Bach
- 2014 Monument Valley, a 2014 game from Ustwo Games, is built around impossible figures. Illusions Index
- 2020 He later shared the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on black holes. Britannica
Who did what first is not settled: see the “Sources differ” boxes on the Reutersvärd page and the triangle page.
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