- Museum number
- 1963,0716.1
- Description
-
A view of Philip James de Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon; at left a man bowing to a woman, to right figures seated on a bench in the foreground, watching a scene titled 'Satan Arraying his Troops on the Banks of a Fiery Lake, with the Raising of the Palace of Pandemonium' during a performance of Milton's "Paradise Lost" on a stage labelled EIDOPHUSIKON in a cartouche above. c.1782
Pen and grey ink and grey wash, with watercolour
- Production date
- 1782
- Dimensions
-
Height: 212 millimetres
-
Width: 292 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The Eidophusikon opened in February 1781 in Lisle Street, Leicester Square and held up to 130 people, who paid 5 shillings entrance. The stage was ten feet wide, six feet high and eight feet deep. The performance consisted of changes of scenes accompanied by coloured light effects and vocal and instrumental music. This particular scene from 'Paradise Lost' was first shown on 31 January 1782 and there is a detailed description of his visit in 1786 by W. H. Pyne in "Wine and Walnuts". With the disappearance of the structure, apparently in the 1790s, this drawing now serves as the only visual description of its appearance.
Lit.: Ralph Hyde and S. Wilcox 'Panoramania!', exh. Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1988, p.109, cat. no.89, pp. 115-16 (repr.) and O. Lefeuvre, 'Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg 1740-1812', Paris, 2012, p. 77, fig. 38
For the Eidophusikon, see also L. Parris and C. Shields 'Landscape in Britain 1750-1850', exh. Tate Gallery, 1973, nos. 130-31.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1964 BM, 'Recent Acquisitions', no.41
1972 Jan-Apr, Paris, Petit Palais, 'La peinture romantique anglaise et les préraphaelites', no.40
1974 Jun-Aug, London, Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, 'Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, RA 1740-1812', no. 87
1979 Jun-Jul, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, 'Stanfield', no. 91
1979 Aug-Oct, Tyne & Wear Museum, 'Stanfield', no. 91
1979 Oct-Nov, Sunderland Art Gallery, 'Stanfield', no. 91
1980 May-Sep, Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, 'Les Arts du Théâtre de Watteau à Fragonard', no.114
1985 Jul-Aug, London, Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, 'Merlin', no. E14
1988/9 Nov-Jan, London, Barbican, 'Panoramania!', no.89
1993 May-Oct, Bonn, Exhibition Hall, "Sehsucht" The Desire to See [Panorama]
2004 July-Oct, Cumbria, The Wordsworth Trust, 'Paradise Lost', no.
2005 Oct-Dec, New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, 'Cottage Door', no.
2006 Feb-May, San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, 'Cottage Door', no.
2012/13 Nov-Feb, Strasbourg, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Loutherbourg.
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Paradise Lost
- Acquisition date
- 1963
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1963,0716.1
