, 1889-09-13
INVENTED ~PANORAMAS.
IT is SAID THAT A ScoTcHMAN
FIRST PAINTED THEM.

Robert Barker and His Career-How the
Idea First Occurred to HIm-EdInburgh
Painted as n Beginner-A Rival Claim
NTH Panorama of Joan Of Arc
Robert Barker is generally credited
with being the first painter of panoramas
as we know them today. He Vas born
in Edinburgh, where he lived for sixty
years during the last century. Originally
he made his living by painting portraits,
and it is said of him that the first notion
Of a picture that would take in the entire
scene visible from a certain point on
every side occurred to him when he was
sitting on the top of Carlton hill in
Scotland's capital. He went home and
began painting on a cylindrical surfacea
picture of the town as ii appears to any
body viewing it from that famous emf
hence, which would include Arthur's
seat, the Castle Rock and the distant
Firth of Forth.
SIR JOSHUA CONVINCED.
His first picture vas on paper pasted
on to linen. He came to London with it,
and invoked the patronage of Sir Joshua
Reynolds, who declared the plan of such
a picture so impracticable that he would
"Illlllkl1 . it bdlut Rtb u vi blb Dtu III
night time to inspect the work of art il
it could be produced. When Barker did
actually surmount all difficulties and
opened his panoramic exhibition in
Castle street, Leicester square, skeptical
Sir Joshua was as good, or almost as
good, as his promise. He sailed forth
one morning in his slippers from his
breakfast table to see the marvel, and,
having received ocular demonstration
that a panorama was a possibility, gen.
erously congratulated the artist on his
success.
The first picture was painted in a cir
Gle, the diameter of which was twenty
five feet, but afterwards Barker became
more ambitious. He had succeeded with
Edinburgh, why should he not try Lon
don? This he at once set to work doing,
and he produced n picture taken from
an elevated position in the old Albion
mills, near Blackfriars' bridge. By dint
Of "'pegging away" and with the assist
ance of one or two kindly and wealthy
patrons, such as Lord Elcho, Barker had
contrived to snatch pecuniary success
out of the jaws of apparent failure, and
five years after he arrived in London, in
1898, he took the lease of a piece of
ground in Cranhourn street and erected
thereon a large building simply and
solely for the purpose of exhibiting his
panoramas there. A joint stock company
helped him to find funds for this build
ing, where he had three rooms, in the
largest of which the diameter of the pic
ture was ninety feet, and the chief open
ing attraction was a representation of
n review of the fleet at Spithead. This
succeeded so well that the inventive Bar
ker bought up the shares in his own COM
pany n became sole proprietor.
From this time inward the Leiceters
square panorama was one of the lions of
London, and its INVENTOR having made a
thoroughly good thing out of it, and
having pleased and improved the minds
of countless spectators, died in the year
1906, leaving his profitable occupation to
his son, Henry Aston Barker, "who kept
on the business still, resigned" or not as
the case might be, unto the heavenly
will" AT all events Barker the younger
was a conscientious p~anoramist, for he
j%ourneyed all over Europe in his search
for subjects" He "panoramed" Malta
and Elba, and in the course of his visit
to the latter place interviewed the great
Napoleon. He illustrated Nelson's most
famous sea fights, and he went to Con-
stantinople II Waterloo to make draw
ings of each.
THE BIG ICTURE IN PARIS.
From Waterloo he journeyed on to
Paris, which the allied troops were then
occupying, in order to obtain perfectly
correct ccoun of the dispositions of
tho fAt.-ao frnn. tha artna1 laaIara Il, fIa
fight. AS no inventor is ever allowed to
be the first in the field, it may be well,
in the interests of historical accuracy, to
say that Robert Barker's fame is troubled
by a rival discoverer OF panoramas, one
Professor Breisig, of Danzig; but it is
acknowledged that Barker was the first
actually to paint and exhibit a panoram-
ic picture on a large scale.
The latest development of the pano-
ramic art is to be seen, along with other
wonders, at Paris. Patriotism has in
spired some enterprising Gaul with he
very happy thought of Selling the oppor-
tunity for interesting his countrymen
and women and the whole world in the
story of Joan of Arc. He mas according
ly had painted and is exhibiting a colos-
sal and beautiful panorama of the life of
the Maid of Orleans in several scenes.
Realism is, of course, to the fore, and
during the battle scenes before Orleans
the peal of trumpets is heard, while the
painting of the groups of figures in he
coronation scene at Rheims and in other
episodes is said to be marvelously life
like. This panorama, If it does nothing
else, affords an agreeable way of learn
ing the chief facts in the life of a great
historical character.
Many people will wish that they could
learn all their history in the same easy
fashion. To have well painted tableaux
pass in succession before one, each de-
picting a famous scene in n great drama
of actual life, is not a contemplate aid
to education. If there is any lecturing
to be done the lecturers remarks are lis
tened to with far more patience when the
eye has all the time before it the actual
scene of which mention is being made.
Even a humorist like Artemus Ward
found that his comic addresses went"
much better when aided by a panorama,