Philippe de Loutherbourg

1740–1812. French painter, stage designer, and illustrator, active mainly in England.

Life

He was born in Strasbourg as the son of an engraver and a miniaturist. Although his mother wanted him to become a Lutheran cleric and his father had intented him for engineering, his passion was for painting. Nevertheless, he went to the University of Strasbourg and studied mathematics, phylosophy, science and theology to satisfy his parents.

In 1755 he moved to Paris, where he studied with Charles-André van Loo, a successful painter and Recteur of the Académie Royale, and Giovanni Battista Casanova.

During the 1760s he was a successful exhibitor, especially with his landscapes and was nominated as a “peintre du roi”. In 1767 he became a member of the Royal Academy before he had reached the normally required age of 30.

In 1771 he went to London and met actor-manager David Garrick, whom he presented proposals for the alteration and improvement of the lighting, scenic and mechanical systems in Drury Lane Theatre as well as for costumes. Because of his attractive ideas he was employed by Garrick. For him he became a very creative designer of impressive stage sets at Drury Lane Theatre. When Garrick was retired in 1776, Loutherbourg continued under his successor Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

In 1781, however, he left Drury Lane and iniciated his own celebrated theatrical entertainment, the Eidophusikon, a moving panorama using three-dimensional sets, lighting, and sound effects to represent shipwrecks and natural wonders, such as Niagara Falls.

On his travels around England and Wales he got the ideas for his landscapes, which can be characterised as rather stagy but at the same time lively. Their feeling for Picturesque and Sublime qualities provided an influential alternative to the dominance of the Italianate tradition. In his later work he concentrated more on history painting, including battle scenes and biblical subjects. He made numerous book illustrations and also published two collections of engravings of his work: The Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain (1801) and The Romantic and Picturesque Scenery of England and Wales (1805).

Famous works:

Travellers at a Well, 1769

Rocky Coastal Landscape in a Storm, 1771

Clair de Lune, 1777

Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June, painted 1795

Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1796

The Battle of Camperdown, 1799

Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801

An avalanche, 1803

Shepherd and Shepherdess Dancing, --

Battle of Maida, --

Bibliography

Highfill, Philip H. Jr., Burnim, Kalman A. and Edward A. Langhans: “A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses Musicians, Dancers Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800.“ Volume 2. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973. pp 300-314.

Chilvers, Ian. "Loutherbourg, Philippe Jacques de." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 4 Jan. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

http://www.lib-art.com/artgallery/383-philip-jacques-de-loutherbourg.html (04/01/2011)

http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/LOUTHERBOURG_BIO.html (04/11/2011)