Panorama - Paintings

Paintings

The word was originally coined by the Irish painter Robert Barker to describe his panoramic paintings of Edinburgh and London. Shown on a cylindrical surface and viewed from the inside, they were exhibited in London in 1792 as "The Panorama". The motion-picture term panning is derived from panorama.

In the mid-19th century, panoramic paintings and models became a very popular way to represent landscapes and historical events. Audiences of Europe in this period were thrilled by the aspect of illusion, immersed in a winding 360 degree panorama and given the impression of standing in a new environment. The Dutch marine painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag created and established the Panorama Mesdag of The Hague, Netherlands, in 1881, a cylindrical painting more than 14 metres high and roughly 40 meters in diameter (120 meters in circumference). In the same year of 1881, the Bourbaki Panorama in Lucerne, Switzerland, which exhibits a circular painting, was created by Edouard Castres. The painting measures about 10 metres in height with a circumference of 112 meters. Another example would be the Atlanta Cyclorama, depicting the Civil War Battle of Atlanta. It was first displayed in 1887, and is 42 feet high by 358 feet wide. Even larger than these paintings is the Racławice Panorama located in Wrocław, Poland, which measures 120 × 15 metres.