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//Source(s): he Panorama Phenomenon: Mesdag Panorama 1881- 1981 Published by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Centenarian Mesdag Panorama (September 1981) Den Haag, Holland editor Evelyn J. Fruitema written by Paul A. Zoetmulder Mesdag Panorama, Zeestraat 65b, 2518AA The Hague// (((The justly famed Mesdag Panorama in Den Haag is one of the best-preserved examples of this dead form of nineteenth-century virtuality. THE PANORAMA PHENOMENON is an illustrated English-language historiography associated with the exhibit, with extensive notes on Hendrik Willem Mesdag's own panorama of Old Scheveningen, and on the panorama in general.))) page 13 "An anecdote has it that in the year 1785 a young Irish painter in Edinburgh landed in prison because he could give no satisfaction to his creditors. He was the painter and draughtsman Robert Barker who, confined in his prison cell, perhaps through sheer boredom, accidentally invented the panorama. His extremely uncomfortable quarters were situated in a basement, and the sparse daylight entered through a narrow opening in the ceiling, very near the wall, and so lighted up the vertical wall just underneath. "Barker will not have had much contact with the world outside, but once he did receive a letter which gave him inspiration. He could only decipher the letter by holding it up against the dimly lit wall. The incidence of light from above on the letter, observed by Barker in the dark gaol, apparently presented such a peculiar effect, that it occurred to the civil debtor to illuminate paintings in a similar way.(...) "The patent obtained by him in 1787 defined this conclusively. The fact that he applied for a patent is typical. It may well be the first manifestation of the systematic mixture of art and technology. (...) "In 1787 he brought an unusual picture to Londin, unusual both for its size and form; a large oblong semi-circular canvas depicting a *View of Edinburgh.* Compared to his later work, it was only an initial effort to create what he described a little later in his patent application as a 'View of Nature' (La Nature a Coup d'Oeil). In the artistic community his first effort had no success whatsoever. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the President of the Royal Society, advised Barker courteously but explicitly to stop his useless experimenting, an advice completely disregared by the modernist. His invention was patented on the 3rd of July 1787. "He defined his invention: 'An entire new contrivance or apparatus, which I call La Nature a Coup d'Oeil, for the purpose of displaying views of Nature at large by Oil Painting, Fresco, Water Colours, Crayons, or any other mode of painting or drawing." "The word *panorama* does not figure in the patent. (...) It is reported that the term would have been introduced by a classical scholar among his friends. At any rate, Barker himself mentions the word *panorama* in 1792 in an advertisement in *The Times.* Henceforth it quickly became the definite style for a circular picture."
 * Dead medium: the Panorama**
 * From: bruces@well.com Bruce Sterling**