Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1966 - 12

The Eidophusikon
Ralph G. Allen, University of Pittsburgh
I. R. Code (Presentation !Lighting)

Philip James de Loutherbourg (1 740-1812) is acknowledged by most historians of the English theatre to be the
most important and influential stage designer to work in
London during the last half of the eighteenth century. An
Alsatian by birth, he came to England in 1771 and
shortly afterwards was hired by Garrick to be chief scene
painter at Drury Lane. He remained at this post for nine
years, during which time he effected a great many decisive changes in the rigid system of stage mounting
which had persisted in England since shortly after the
Restoration.
A landscape artist when not engaged in theatre work,
De Loutherbourg was one of the first designers to adapt
the principles of "picturesque" painting to the conventions
of a stage performance. More important, however, were
his numerous technical innovations, many of which anticipate by more than a hundred years the "revolutionary"
attempt by Grieve and others to organize space romantically and realistically. He was, for example, the first designer to make continual, as opposed to occasional, use
of ramps, profiled wings, elaborate set pieces, and other
radical devices. He experimented extensively with transparencies and colored lights and, indeed, invented a remarkable silk-screen pivot which permitted him to vary
the hue, intensity, and direction of his light. 1 In a striking
anticipation of modern practice, he advocated the spreading of light unevenly upon the stage and quite obviously
understood the expressiveness of shadow on the stage.
De Loutherbourg designed scenes for at least twentynine productions at Drury Lane and one at Covent Garden. 2 However startling and imaginative these stage
pieces seemed, none was as radical or forward-looking
as an unconventional entertainment called The Eidophusikin, which De Loutherbourg himself produced at a small
theatre of his own devising.
Strictly speaking, The Eidophusikon was not a ligitimate theatre piece at all, but its influence on subsequent
stage design and technology was perhaps greater than
that of any single play or pantomime that appeared in
the latter half of the eighteenth century.

The Eidophusikon was exactly what its name implies,
"an image of nature." Into this image no human figure
intruded. De Loutherbourg created for himself and for the
London public what every designer, however practical,
must occasionally include among his secret wishesua
successful, actorless stage. His entertainment consisted
of scenery and scenery alone, which was presented for
its own sake on a miniature stage, measuring no more
than six by eight feet, less than one-twenty-sixth of the
space available at Drury Lane. 3

This reduced scale permitted the artist to free himself
from many of the awkward conventions which inhibited a
designer for the legitimate theatre. Moreover, by eliminatll1g the actors from his setting, he was able to concentrate solely on the motion of nature itself. The result was
a greater and more astounding realism than had ever been
achieved on the English stage.
The novelty of that realism secured the Eidophusikon an
immediate, if transitory, success not only with the public,
but with De Loutherbourg's fellow artists as well. Indeed, for perhaps the only time in their careers, both
Reynolds and Gainsborough found themselves in perfect
agreement. Reynolds, we are told, "honoured the talents
of the ingenious contriver by frequent attendance" at De
Loutherbourg's spectacle; 4 and Gainsborough was so
"wrapt in delight" that he made a miniature copy of the
stage for his own amusement. 5
The general enthusiasm is summed up by the European
Magazine.
Every person of taste in this metropolis beheld it with admiration. The moving pictures in the pantopticon, and sundry other
pieces of clock·work; the transparencies of the stage; the Italian
and Chinese shadows, had all pleased in their times, but when
Mr. De Loutherbourg's works were seen, all which had preceded them were deemed as chaotic assemblages of warring
elements, which his creative genius first reduced to lucid order.6

The Eidophusikon appeared in three separate editions.
The first of these opened at a "large house" on Leicester
Square on the evening of February 26, 1781 and ran
for fifty-nine performances before closing for the summer
in M ay 7
The program is revealed
Morning Herald:

by an advertisement in the

EIDOPHUSIKON:
Or, various Imitations of NATURAL PHENOMENA, represented
by Moving Pictures. Invented and Painted by Mr. DE LOUTHER·
BOURG in a Manner entirely ew. The Performance divided
into Five Scenes; 1st Aurora, or the Effects of the Dawn, with
a View of London from Greenwich Park. 2d. Noon, the Port of
Tangier in Africa, with the distant View of the Rock Gibralter
and Europa Pam!. 3d. Sun-set, a View near Naples. 4th, Moonlight, a View in the Mediterranean, the Rising of the Moon
contrasted with the Effect of Fire. Four TRA SPARE T PIC·
TURES will be exhibited, An Incantation, A sea port; a conversation of sailors of different nations. Winter. a View in the
Alps, a Wood-cutter attacked by Wolves: and a summer evening, with cattle and figures. A sonata on the Harpsichord_ The
conclusive scene A STORM and SHIPWRECK. Between the
Acts of the Performance, SINGING by Mrs. ARNE. The Performance accompanied and the music by Mr. Michael Arne. B

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