The First Panoramas: Visions of British Imperialism

(Paperback)

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The First Panoramas is a cultural history of the first three decades of the panorama, a three-hundred-sixty-degree visual medium patented by the artist Robert Barker in Britain in 1787. A towering two-story architectural construction inside which spectators gazed on a 10,000-square-foot painting, Barker's new technology was designed to create an impression of total verisimilitude for the observer.

Reviews

"During the last decade the new field of panorama studies has achieved a great deal, though many accounts of this important and elusive form of visual representation are still marked by misleading generalizations. Denise Blake Oleksijczuks impressive The First Panoramas carries panorama research to a new level of material and historical specificity. Clearly it is a work that will be indispensable for anyone studying this topic and readers will be rewarded by its exemplary combination of archival investigation and theoretical reflection." Jonathan Crary, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory, Columbia University

"The First Panoramas is a substantial and fascinating book that offers new ways of looking at the panoramic culture of early nineteenth century Britain. It combines a very detailed historical analysis with readings of individual panoramic works." Lynda Nead, Birkbeck University of London

Author Bio

Denise Blake Oleksijczuk is assistant professor at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.