The Diorama

The inventor and proprietor of the Diorama was Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), formerly a decorator, manufacturer of mirrors, painter of Panoramas, and masterly designer and painter of theatrical stage illusions. Daguerre would later co-invent the daguerreotype, the first widely used method of photography.

Daguerre opened a second Diorama in Regent's Park in London in 1823, a year after the debut of his Paris original. The building which exhibited the diorama, was designed by Augustus Charles Pugin, father of the notable English architect and designer Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. The show was a popular sensation, and spawned immediate imitations. British artists like Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts produced ever-more elaborate dioramas through the 1830s; sound effects and even living performers were added. Some "typical diorama effects included moonlit nights, winter snow turning into a summer meadow, rainbows after a storm, illuminated fountains," waterfalls, thunder and lightning, and ringing bells.[3] A diorama painted by Daguerre is currently housed in the church of the French town Bry-sur-Marne, where he lived and died.


[From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diorama#The_Daguerre_Dioramas]

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