Panorama Mesdag
Encyclopedia
Panorama Mesdag is a panorama
Panorama
A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....

 by Hendrik Willem Mesdag
Hendrik Willem Mesdag
Hendrik Willem Mesdag was a Dutch marine painter.He was born in Groningen, the son of the banker Klaas Mesdag and his wife Johanna Wilhelmina van Giffen. Mesdag was encouraged by his father, an amateur painter, to study art...

. Housed in a purpose-built museum in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, the panorama is a cylindrical painting (also known as a Cyclorama
Cyclorama
For the classical album Cyclorama, see Jonathan Goldstein; For the rock album Cyclorama by Styx, see Cyclorama ; for the theatrical backdrop, see Cyclorama...

) more than 14 metres high and about 40 metres in diameter (120 metres in circumference). From an observation gallery in the centre of the room the cylindrical perspective creates the illusion that the viewer is on a high sand dune overlooking the sea, beaches and village of Scheveningen in the late 19th century. A foreground of fake terrain around the viewing gallery hides the base of the painting and makes the illusion more convincing.
Mesdag was a notable marine painter of the Hague School
Hague School
The Hague School is the name given to a group of artists who lived and worked in The Hague between 1860 and 1890. Their work was heavily influenced by the realist painters of the French Barbizon school. The painters of the Hague school generally made use of relatively sombre colours, which is why...

; in 1880 he was engaged by a Belgian company to paint the panorama, which with the assistance of his wife and many student painters (including Breitner
George Hendrik Breitner
George Hendrik Breitner wasa Dutch painter and photographer.-Biography:George Hendrik Breitner was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. From 1876–1880 he attended the Academy in the Hague where his extraordinary talent was rewarded on various occasions...

), was completed by 1881. However, the vogue for panoramas was coming to an end, and the company went bankrupt in 1886. Mesdag purchased the panorama and met its losses from his own pocket. The panorama is now the oldest surviving panorama in its original location.

See also

  • Panorama
    Panorama
    A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....

  • Panoramic painting
    Panoramic painting
    Panoramic paintings are massive artworks that reveal a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular subject, often a landscape, military battle, or historical event. They became especially popular in the 19th Century in Europe and the United States, inciting opposition from writers of Romantic poetry...

  • International Panorama Council
    International Panorama Council
    The International Panorama Council is a global network involving museum directors, managers, artists, restorers and historians who deal with the historical or the contemporary art and media forms of the Panorama...

  • Cyclorama
    Cyclorama
    For the classical album Cyclorama, see Jonathan Goldstein; For the rock album Cyclorama by Styx, see Cyclorama ; for the theatrical backdrop, see Cyclorama...

  • Museum Mesdag
    Museum Mesdag
    The Museum Mesdag is an art museum in The Hague, The Netherlands.This is museum is housed in the former house of the Dutch painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag and shows the art Mesdag and his wife Sina van Houten have collected from 1866 to 1903...

  • Trompe L'oeil
    Trompe l'oeil
    Trompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...

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