Philippe jacques de loutherbourg biography of albert

French-born English painter

Philip James de LoutherbourgRA (31 October 1740 – 11 March 1812), whose name run through sometimes given in the French form of Philippe-Jacques, the German form of Philipp Jakob, or ready to go the English-language epithet of the Younger, was regular French-born British painter who became known for coronate large naval works, his elaborate set designs be after London theatres, and his invention of a heedless theatre called the "Eidophusikon". He also had contain interest in faith-healing and the occult, and was a companion of the confidence-trickster Alessandro Cagliostro.^[1]

Early life

Loutherbourg was born in Strasbourg in 1740, the spoil of an expatriate Polishminiature painter.^[1] Intended for prestige Lutheran ministry, he was educated at the Institute of Strasbourg.^[2]

Paris

Rejecting a religious calling, Loutherbourg certain to become a painter, and in 1755 positioned himself under Charles-André van Loo in Paris, final later under Francesco Giuseppe Casanova. His talent complex rapidly, and he became a figure in ethics fashionable society of the day. In 1767 yes was elected to the French Academy, although downstairs the age required by the rules of excellence institution, and painted landscapes, sea storms, and battles, all of which work had a celebrity earlier those of the specialists then working in Town. He made his debut with the exhibition be the owner of twelve pictures, including Storm at Sunset, Night, countryside Morning after Rain.^[2]

Travels

Loutherbourg then travelled through Switzerland, Frg and Italy, distinguishing himself as much by crown mechanical inventions as by his painting. One have a phobia about these, showing new effects produced in a imitation theatre, was the wonder of the day, jar its use of lights behind canvas representing justness moon and stars, and the illusory appearance indicate running water produced by clear blue sheets fail metal and gauze, with loose threads of silver.^[2]

London

Theatre

In 1771 he settled in London, where David Player paid him £500 a year to design set and costumes and oversee the stage machinery survey the Drury Lane Theatre.^[3] His stage effects attentive the admiration not just of the general communal, but also of artists, including Joshua Reynolds. Misstep devised scenic effects in which, for instance, grassy trees gradually became russet and the moon maroon and lit the edges of passing clouds:^[2] illusions achieved through the use of coloured lantern-slides trip the ingenious lighting of transparencies.^[4] He continued collect work at the theatre until 1785.^[3]

He achieved be over even greater success with an entertainment called high-mindedness Eidophusikon, meaning "image of nature". This was well-ordered miniature mechanical theatre measuring six by eight podium, and described as displaying "Various Imitations of Innocent Phenomena, represented by Moving Pictures". It was be on fire at Loutherbourg's home from March 1781 in enterprise auditorium seating about 130 people. He used Argand lamps to light the stage and stained crystal to change colours.

At Christmas, 1781, Loutherbourg on horseback a spectacle at a party in the Afroasiatic Hall at Fonthill for William Beckford, promising (according to Beckford) to "present a mysterious something rove the eye has not seen or heart break into man conceived".^[4] Following this he attempted rather many fantastical subjects for the Eidophusikon, presenting a aspect from Paradise Lost with "Satan arraying his unit base on the banks of the Fiery Lake, nearby the rising of the Palace of Pandemonium".^[4] Loftiness Eidophusikon soon closed, however, as the income exact not cover the costs and the audience needed new productions faster than Loutherbourg could create them. He has been called the inventor of honesty panorama but, although it first appeared about loftiness same time as the Eidophusikon, the first think about was painted and exhibited by the Scottish cougar Robert Barker.

Painting

Despite these other projects, Loutherbourg standstill found time for painting. Lord Howe's action, specifics the Glorious First of June (exhibited 1795) essential other large naval pictures were commissioned to keep British naval victories, many of them ending adorn soon afterwards in the Greenwich Hospital Gallery (in whose successor, the National Maritime Museum, they freeze remain). His finest work was the Destruction grounding the Armada. He also painted the Great Eagerness of London and several historical works, including high-mindedness Attack of the Combined Armies on Valenciennes (1793).^[2] He was interested in the Industrial Revolution, brook his 1801 painting Coalbrookdale by Night shows persuasive foundries at work.

Seven of his paintings, with Lodore Waterfall and Skating in Hyde Park, superfluous in the Government Art Collection.^[5]

He was made spruce up member of the Royal Academy in 1781.

Publications

Two sets of drawings by de Loutherbourg were publicised, reproduced in aquatint, under the title Picturesque Forthrightly Scenery in 1801 and 1805. He also free illustrations to a Bible published by Thomas Macklin in 1800.^[3] After his death Cadell and Davies published a volume of the Apocrypha. All Cardinal of his drawings for the vignettes (but battle-cry the Apocrypha) are pasted in the Bowyer Manual in Bolton Museum in Greater Manchester.

Esoteric interests

In 1789 Loutherbourg temporarily gave up painting, in circuit to pursue an interest in alchemy and primacy supernatural.^[3] He met Alessandro Cagliostro, who instructed him in the occult.^[3] He travelled about with Magician, leaving him, however, before his condemnation to death.^[2] He and his wife also took up faith-healing. A pamphlet called A List of a Passive Cures performed by Mr and Mrs De Loutherbourg, of Hammersmith Terrace, without Medicine was published embankment 1789. Written by a follower named Mary Pratt, it claimed that the Loutherbourgs had cured fold up thousand people between Christmas 1788 and the mass July, "having been made proper recipients to appropriate divine manuductions".^[6]

Death

Loutherbourg died in Chiswick in west Writer in 1812.

There are paintings by him blot the collections of many British institutions including Calamity Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Popular Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy of Art, City, Farnham and Derby Art Gallery.^[7]

Loutherbourg was buried doubtful Chiswick Old Cemetery, adjoining the graveyard of From the past Nicholas Church, Chiswick. Buried nearby are the artists William Hogarth and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

Further reading

• Burden, Michael. "The Making and Marketing of integrity Georgian Apotheosis: Carter, Strange, Rebecca, Tresham, and make a search of 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 Go red in the face and Other Papers. London: Humphrey Milford Oxford Institution Press, 1923. Print.

Gallery

• Landscape with Animals, 1767

• Moonlight, 1777

• Warley Camp, 1780

• A View near Matlock, Derbyshire, 1785

• Snowdon from Capel Curig, 1787

• Hampstead Heath, Summer, 1787

• The Falls of authority Rhine at Schaffhausen, 1788

• The Grand Attack on Valenciennes, 1794

• The Great Fire of London, 1797

• A Distant Hail-Storm Coming On, 1799

• The Battle of Camperdown, 1799

• A Allegory Boat Brought Ashore near Conway Castle, 1800

• The Blows of Alexandria, 1802

• The Landing of British troops avoid Aboukir, 1802

• The Cutting-Out of the French corvette Wintry Chevrette, 1802

• An Avalanche in the Alps, 1803

• The Ebb Coach, London in the Distance, 1805

• Richard the Lionheart at Saint-Jean d'Acre, 1807

• Self portrait, 1805–10

References

External links