Philip James de Loutherbourg
RA (31 October 174011 March 1812), whose name is sometimes given in the
French
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* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
form of Philippe-Jacques, the
German
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* Germany (of or related to)
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**Ge ...
form of Philipp Jakob, or with the English-language epithet of the Younger, was a French-born British painter who became known for his large
naval works, his elaborate
set designs for London theatres, and his invention of a mechanical theatre called the "Eidophusikon". He also had an interest in
faith-healing and the occult, and was a companion of the confidence-trickster
Alessandro Cagliostro
Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (, ; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795) was the alias of the Italian occultist Giuseppe Balsamo (; in French usually referred to as Joseph Balsamo).
Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician ...
.
[
]
Early life
Loutherbourg was born in Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label= Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the ...
in 1740, the son of an expatriate Polish miniature painter. Intended for the Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...
ministry, he was educated at the University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers.
The French university traces its history to the ea ...
.
Paris
Rejecting a religious calling, Loutherbourg decided to become a painter, and in 1755 placed himself under Charles-André van Loo
Carle or Charles-André van Loo (; 15 February 1705 – 15 July 1765) was a French painter, son of the painter Louis-Abraham van Loo, a younger brother of Jean-Baptiste van Loo and grandson of Jacob van Loo. He was the most famous member of a ...
in Paris and later under Francesco Giuseppe Casanova
Francesco Giuseppe Casanova (1 June 1727, London – 8 July 1803, near Mödling) was an Italian painter who specialised in battle scenes. His older brother was Giacomo Casanova, the famous adventurer, and his younger brother was Giovanni Casano ...
. His talent developed rapidly, and he became a figure in the fashionable society of the day. In 1767 he was elected to the French Academy, although below the age required by the rules of the institution, and painted landscapes, sea storms, and battles, all of which work had a celebrity above those of the specialists then working in Paris. He made his debut with the exhibition of twelve pictures, including ''Storm at Sunset'', ''Night'', and ''Morning after Rain''.
Travels
Loutherbourg then travelled through Switzerland, Germany and Italy, distinguishing himself as much by his mechanical inventions as by his painting. One of these, showing new effects produced in a model theatre, was the wonder of the day, with its use of lights behind canvas representing the moon and stars, and the illusory appearance of running water produced by clear blue sheets of metal and gauze, with loose threads of silver.
London
Theatre
In 1771 he settled in London, where David Garrick
David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...
paid him £500 a year to design scenery and costumes and oversee the stage machinery at the Drury Lane Theatre
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...
.[ His stage effects attracted the admiration not just of the general public, but also of artists, including ]Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...
. He devised scenic effects in which, for instance, green trees gradually became russet and the moon rose and lit the edges of passing clouds: illusions achieved through the use of coloured lantern-slides and the ingenious lighting of transparencies. He continued to work at the theatre until 1785.[
He achieved an even greater success with an entertainment called the '' Eidophusikon'', meaning "image of nature". This was a miniature mechanical theatre measuring six by eight feet, and described as displaying "Various Imitations of Natural Phenomena, represented by Moving Pictures". It was presented at Loutherbourg's home from March 1781 in an auditorium seating about 130 people. He used Argand lamps to light the stage and stained glass to change colours.
At Christmas, 1781, Loutherbourg mounted a spectacle at a party in the Egyptian Hall at Fonthill for William Beckford, promising (according to Beckford) to "present a mysterious something that the eye has not seen or heart of man conceived".][ Following this he attempted rather more fantastical subjects for the Eidophusikon, presenting a scene from '']Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 16 ...
'' with "Satan arraying his troops on the banks of the Fiery Lake, and the rising of the Palace of Pandemonium".[ The Eidophusikon soon closed, however, as the income did not cover the costs and the audience demanded new productions faster than Loutherbourg could create them. He has been called the inventor of the ]panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined i ...
but, although it first appeared about the same time as the Eidophusikon, the first panorama was painted and exhibited by the Scottish painter Robert Barker.
Painting
Despite these other projects, Loutherbourg still found time for painting. '' Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June'' (exhibited 1795) and other large naval pictures were commissioned to commemorate British naval victories, many of them ending up soon afterwards in the Greenwich Hospital Gallery (in whose successor, the National Maritime Museum, they still remain). His finest work was the ''Destruction of the Armada''. He also painted the ''Great Fire of London'' and several historical works, including the ''Attack of the Combined Armies on Valenciennes'' (1793). He was interested in the industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
and his 1801 painting '' Coalbrookdale by Night'' shows iron foundries at work.
Seven of his paintings, including ''Lodore Waterfall'' and ''Skating in Hyde Park'', are in the Government Art Collection.
He was made a member of the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
in 1781.
Publications
Two sets of drawings by de Loutherbourg were published, reproduced in aquatint, under the title ''Picturesque English Scenery'' in 1801 and 1805. He also contributed illustrations to a Bible published by Thomas Macklin in 1800. After his death Cadell and Davies published a volume of the Apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
. All 110 of his drawings for the vignettes (but not the Apocrypha) are pasted in the Bowyer Bible in Bolton Museum in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...
.
Esoteric interests
In 1789 Loutherbourg temporarily gave up painting, in order to pursue an interest in alchemy and the supernatural.[ He met Alessandro di Cagliostro, who instructed him in the occult.][ He travelled about with Cagliostro, leaving him, however, before his condemnation to death.] He and his wife also took up faith-healing. A pamphlet called ''A List of a Few Cures performed by Mr and Mrs De Loutherbourg, of Hammersmith Terrace, without Medicine'' was published in 1789. Written by a follower named Mary Pratt, it claimed that the Loutherbourgs had cured two thousand people between Christmas 1788 and the following July, "having been made proper recipients to receive divine manuductions".
Death
Loutherbourg died in Chiswick
Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and F ...
in 1812.
There are paintings by him in the collections of many British institutions including, Tate Britain, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Academy of Art, Leicester, Farnham and Derby Art Gallery. Philip James de Loutherbourg
BBC, accessed August 2011
Loutherbourg was buried in Chiswick Old Cemetery, adjoining the graveyard of St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
St Nicholas Church, Chiswick is a Grade II* listed Anglican church in Church Street, Chiswick, London, near the River Thames. Old Chiswick developed as a village around the church from c. 1181. The tower was built at some time between 1416 and ...
. Buried nearby are the artists William Hogarth and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
Further reading
* Burden, Michael
Michael Burden, FAHA, (born 14 March 1960) is an Australian musicologist, working in the United Kingdom. He was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2018.
Life
Born in Adelaide, South Australia, he was ...
. "The Making and Marketing of the Georgian Apotheosis: Carter, Strange, Rebecca, Tresham, and de Loutherbourg". ''The British Art Journal'', 22/1 (2021) pp. 10–17.
* Joppier, Rudiger (1973). ''Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, R.A., 1740-1812.'' London: Greater London Council.
* Dobson, Austin. At Prior Park and Other Papers. London: Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press, 1923. Print.
References
External links
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*
Adventures in Cybersound: Philippe Jacques de Loutherberg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loutherbourg, Philip James de
1740 births
1812 deaths
18th-century English painters
English male painters
19th-century English painters
Landscape artists
Artists from Strasbourg
Royal Academicians
French emigrants to the Kingdom of Great Britain
History painters
Military art
French emigrants to England
French people of Polish descent
English people of Polish descent
19th-century English male artists
18th-century English male artists