The Fountain of Fallacy The gap in the provenance of The Fountain of Indolence between 1834 and 1882 lends credence to the theory that it is identical with The Fountain of Fallacy, a painting which Turner exhibited at the British Institution in 1839, accompanied by four lines from his own poem entitled Fallacies of Hope. Its Rainbow-dew diffused fell on each anxious lip, Working wild fantasy, imagining; First, Science in the immeasurable Abyss of thought, Measured her orbit slumbering. Contemporary descriptions of the Fountain of Fallacy apply equally well to The Fountain of Indolence. In 1839, the year it was exhibited, Turner wrote to a Mr. Marshall that The Fountain of Fallacy was for sale for 400 guineas and that he had no other painting of that size for sale. No subsequent ownership history of The Fountain of Fallacy is known and the only recorded references to it after its first exhibition are two comments by John Ruskin. According to Turner expert Martin Butlin, in the catalogue raisonné The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, the available evidence indicates "that in fact there was – and is – only one" picture. References Paintings by J. M. W. Turner 1834 paintings Paintings in Canada Water in art