Philip James de Loutherbourg

Philip James de Loutherbourg studied at Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. Training under Francesco Giuseppe Casanova and Johann Georg Wille is recorded. The recorded working language is French, English and Alsatian. The field of work recorded is theatre, scenography and costume design. Places of work recorded in the authority are England and France. Works named in the authority record are An Avalanche in the Alps, Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June, Coalbrookdale by Night, Moonlight, Landscape with Animals and Eidophusikon. Work by Philip James de Loutherbourg is recorded in the collections of Städel Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museo del Prado, Art Institute of Chicago and Auckland Art Gallery.

• Name — Philip James de Loutherbourg • Birth Name — Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg • Born — 31 October 1740 • Birthplace — Strasbourg, Alsace, France • Died — 11 March 1812 • Place of death — Chiswick, Middlesex, Britain • Field — Painting • Training — Charles-André van Loo Francesco Giuseppe Casanova • Movement — History painting Military art Romanticism • Works — Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June Coalbrookdale by Night

• Illustration — The Battle of Camperdown (1799) • Illustration — Landscape with cows, Wilanów Palace, Warsaw • Illustration — Battle of Maida. Engraving based on Loutherbourg's painting. Loutherbourg was born in Strasbourg in 1740, the son of a Swiss miniature painter. Intended for the Lutheran ministry, he was educated at the University of Strasbourg.

Rejecting a religious calling, Loutherbourg decided to become a painter, and in 1755 placed himself under Charles-André van Loo in Paris, and later under Francesco Giuseppe Casanova. His talent developed rapidly, and he became a figure in the fashionable society of the day. He first exhibited at the Salon of 1763 where his Landscape with Figures and Animals attracted praise from Denis Diderot. He followed this up with further success at the Salon of 1765 with two paintings including Morning After the Rain. In 1767 he was elected to the French Academy, although below the age required by the rules of the institution, and painted landscapes, sea storms, and battles, all of which work had a celebrity above those of the specialists then working in Paris. He made his debut with the exhibition of twelve pictures, including Storm at Sunset, Night, and Morning after Rain. • Illustration — Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1796. One of Loutherbourg's large battle scenes depicting the English victory against the Spanish Armada in 1588. Today it is in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Loutherbourg then travelled through Switzerland, Germany and Italy, distinguishing himself as much by his mechanical inventions as by his painting. One of these, showing new effects produced in a model theatre, was the wonder of the day, with its use of lights behind canvas representing the moon and stars, and the illusory appearance of running water produced by clear blue sheets of metal and gauze, with loose threads of silver.

In 1771 he settled in London, where David Garrick paid him £500 a year to design scenery and costumes and oversee the stage machinery at the Drury Lane Theatre. His stage effects attracted the admiration not just of the general public, but also of artists, including Joshua Reynolds. He devised scenic effects in which, for instance, green trees gradually became russet and the moon rose and lit the edges of passing clouds: illusions achieved through the use of coloured lantern-slides and the ingenious lighting of transparencies. He continued to work at the theatre until 1785. He achieved an even greater success with an entertainment called the Eidophusikon, meaning "image of nature". This was a miniature mechanical theatre measuring six by eight feet, and described as displaying "Various Imitations of Natural Phenomena, represented by Moving Pictures". It was presented at Loutherbourg's home from March 1781 in an auditorium seating about 130 people. He used Argand lamps to light the stage and stained glass to change colours. At Christmas, 1781, Loutherbourg mounted a spectacle at a party in the Egyptian Hall at Fonthill for William Beckford, promising (according to Beckford) to "present a mysterious something that the eye has not seen or heart of man conceived". Following this he attempted rather more fantastical subjects for the Eidophusikon, presenting a scene from Paradise Lost with "Satan arraying his troops on the banks of the Fiery Lake, and the rising of the Palace of Pandemonium". The Eidophusikon soon closed, however, as the income did not cover the costs and the audience demanded new productions faster than Loutherbourg could create them. He has been called the inventor of the panorama but, although it first appeared about the same time as the Eidophusikon, the first panorama was painted and exhibited by the Scottish painter Robert Barker.

• Illustration — Coalbrookdale by Night (1801) Despite these other projects, Loutherbourg still found time for painting. Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June (exhibited 1795) and other large naval pictures were commissioned to commemorate British naval victories, many of them ending up soon afterwards in the Greenwich Hospital Gallery (in whose successor, the National Maritime Museum, they still remain). His finest work was the Defeat of the Spanish Armada. He also painted The Great Fire of London and several historical works, including The Grand Attack on Valenciennes (1793). He was interested in the Industrial Revolution, and his 1801 painting Coalbrookdale by Night shows iron foundries at work. Seven of his paintings, including Lodore Waterfall and Skating in Hyde Park, are in the Government Art Collection. He was made a member of the Royal Academy in 1781.

In 1789 Loutherbourg temporarily gave up painting, in order to pursue an interest in alchemy and the supernatural. He met Alessandro Cagliostro, who instructed him in the occult. He travelled about with Cagliostro, leaving him, however, before his condemnation to death. He and his wife also took up faith-healing. A pamphlet called A List of a Few Cures performed by Mr and Mrs De Loutherbourg, of Hammersmith Terrace, without Medicine was published in 1789. Written by a follower named Mary Pratt, it claimed that the Loutherbourgs had cured two thousand people between Christmas 1788 and the following July, "having been made proper recipients to receive divine manuductions".

Loutherbourg died in Chiswick in west London in 1812. There are paintings by him in the collections of many British institutions including Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy of Art, Leicester, Farnham and Derby Art Gallery. Loutherbourg was buried in Chiswick Old Cemetery, adjoining the graveyard of St Nicholas Church, Chiswick. Buried nearby are the artists William Hogarth and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

• Illustration — Landscape with Figures and Animals, 1763 • Illustration — Maltese Ship Attacked by Algerian Pirates, 1765 • Illustration — Morning After the Rain, 1765 • Illustration — Landscape with Animals, 1767 • Illustration — The Cherry Eater, 1771 • Illustration — The Little Milkmaid, 1771 • Illustration — Moonlight, 1777 • Illustration — Warley Camp, 1780 • Illustration — A Cottage in Patterdale, Westmoreland, 1783 • Illustration — Dovedale in Derbyshire, 1784 • Illustration — A View near Matlock, Derbyshire, 1785 • Illustration — A River Scene with a Ferry, 1786 • Illustration — Snowdon from Capel Curig, 1787 • Illustration — Hampstead Heath, Summer, 1787 • Illustration — The Falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen, 1788 • Illustration — Visitor to a Moonlit Churchyard, 1790 • Illustration — The Destruction of Pharaoh's Army, 1792 • Illustration — The Shipwreck, 1793 • Illustration — The Grand Attack on Valenciennes, 1794 • Illustration — The Great Fire of London, 1797 • Illustration — A Distant Hail-Storm Coming On, 1799 • Illustration — The Battle of Camperdown, 1799 • Illustration — The Battle of the Nile, 1800 • Illustration — A Fishing Boat Brought Ashore near Conway Castle, 1800 • Illustration — The Battle of Alexandria, 1802 • Illustration — The Landing of British Troops at Aboukir, 1802 • Illustration — The Cutting-Out of the French corvette La Chevrette, 1802 • Illustration — An Avalanche in the Alps, 1803 • Illustration — Banditti in a Landscape, 1804 • Illustration — Storm and Avalanche near the Scheidegg in the Valley of Lauterbrunnen, 1804 • Illustration — The Evening Coach, 1805 • Illustration — The River Wye at Tintern Abbey, 1805 • Illustration — Richard the Lionheart at Saint-Jean d'Acre, 1807 • Illustration — Self portrait, 1805–10

Philip James de Loutherbourg was recorded at birth as Philipp Jacob Loutherburg. He also worked under the name Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg II. The authorities additionally record the headings Philipp Jakob de Loutherbourg, Philip James Loutherbourg, Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg, Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourgh and Philippe Jacques De Lauterbourg. His recorded languages were French, English and Alsatian. His recorded confession was reformed. He was the child of Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg. He married Lucy de Loutherbourg (née Paget). One child is recorded: Annibal Christian Loutherbourg.

Works recorded as notable number 8: An Avalanche in the Alps, Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June, Coalbrookdale by Night, Moonlight, Landscape with Animals, Eidophusikon, Landscape with Figures and Animals and Warley Camp: The Review.

Philip James de Loutherbourg is recorded with the occupation costume designer. Loutherbourg worked at England. Loutherbourg worked at France. Recorded as having studied at Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.