Part 390: Clarkston Frederick Stanfield and his Moving Dioramas
The Grieve family’s scenic work for Covent Garden was considered to be exceptional due to their use of transparent glazes, a technique first developed by John Henderson Greive. The Grieve family of scenic artists remained at the top of their profession utilizing this technique until others were able to emulate it, and improve upon it; Clarkston Frederick Stanfield (1793-1878) and David Roberts, R. A. (1796-1864) were two such scenic artsts. Stanfield and Roberts entered the scenic art picture in 1822 when they first started working at the Drury Lane Theatre. It was Stanfield, however, who would introduce movement to the wonderful scenic illusions at the Drury Lane. Roberts was a fine architectural draftsman and scenic artist draughtsman, by the spectacles produced by Stanfield surpassed both Roberts and the Grieves family triumvirate.
By 1823, Stanfield was in the lead at the Drury Lane, creating a succession of ‘moving dioramas.’ In this context, diorama does not refer to the current understanding of a partially three-dimensional painted scene, but a theatre device. Moving dioramas became features of Stanfield’s English Christmas pantomimes during the 1820s. Stanfield’s moving dioramas (what we now may term moving panoramas) were introduced into each of his successive pantomimes; they were considered artistic triumphs and fueled the competition with other scenic artists such as Roberts.
In 1871, E. L. Blanchard wrote that Stanfield “first distinguished himself at Drury Lane by the scenic effects with which he illustrated the opera Der Freyschutz, produced on that stage in 1824.” From that time he remained the chief of the Drury Lane painting-room while Roberts joined the Covent Garden team. Some of Stanfield’s earliest scenes of this kind were in “Harlequin and the Flying Chest,” and his Crystal Grotto in” Harlequin and the Talking Bird” Blanchard reported that they “created a marked sensation” (“Scenery and Scene-Painters” by The Era Almanack, 1871). Pantomimes, or Pantos, appealed to audiences not only for their favorite actors, but also for the processions, tableaux, staged spectacles, and transformation scenes. Stanfield’s moving panorama were enhanced by the use of two moving panoramas that moved simultaneously.
One moving diorama was rolled between two cylinders on the stage. Certain sections were transparent and backlit to suggest the effect of sunrise, sunset, illuminated windows, fire, or other effects. Stanfield’s use of two canvases, one placed in front of the other allowed additional elements to enhance the three-dimensional effect and potential for visual spectacle. The downstage canvas had cut out sections revealing the upstage composition and placing additional elements in the scene. Between the two canvases, profile pieces moved; one example is a sea ship. Stage machinery and the new medium of gas lighting greatly enhanced the painted illusion. Stanfield’s design for “Zoraster” at Drury Lane incorporated a moving diorama that measured 482 feet long.
By 1825, Stanfield produced the great panoramic display titled “Naumetaboia” for a Jack of all Trades (Christmas, 1825), showing the adventures of a man-of-war, from the launch at Dover, its encounter with a gale, the wreck, and the towing into a foreign port. That December, “The Times” theatre review predicted that both Stanfield and Roberts would ‘become highly eminent as contributors to those institutions which have been established for the encouragement of painting in this country’.
Other notable productions mentioned by Blanchard included the 1826 Man in the Moon, that further supported his excellence as a marine painter, with two remarkable scenes called “England’s Pride” and “England’s Glory.” In 1827, Stanfield painted a “fine reputation of Portsmouth in a Gale of Wind for Harlequin and Cock Robin. In 1828, Stanfield painted a moving diorama for Harlequin and the Queen Bee.
The audience was taken on a sea voyage from “Spithead at Sunrise,” past the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, the Dockyard, Gosport, Mother Bank, Isle of Wight with the Royal Yacht Club, Cowes Regatta, the Needles by Moonlight, the Ocean, the Rock of Gibraltar and ending with a “Grand View of Constantinople.”
Roberts was famous for his dioramas, but never produced works which equaled Stanfield’s, such as “the moving diorama of Alpine scenery, or the memorable views of Windsor and the neighbourhood, which included the sparkling tableau of Virginia water, wherein the real element was so effectively introduced” (The Era Almanack, 1871, page 37). Stanfield introduced unbelievably realistic elements on the stage that were supported by the new gaslight. Roberts left the Drury Lane to join the Grieve family triumvirate of John, Thomas and William Grieve at the Covent Garden Theatre by 1828.
Stanfield’s 1829 pantomime Jack in the Box was distinguished by his diorama depicting the pass of the Simplon, the Valley of the Rhone, Domo D’Ossola, and Lago Maggiore, with the Boromean Islands. An exceptional scene in 1831 was reported to be his diorama of Venice for Harlequin and Little Thumb. The following year he created a magnificent painting of the Falls of Niagara, as seen from the approach to Buffalo on Lake Erie, and the Horse Shoe and Great American fall from Goat Island for Harlequin Traveller.
Stanfield’s painting for the 1833 Christmas equestrian spectacle, St. George and the Dragon was “rendered remarkable by his Egyptian diorama, commencing with the great cataracts and showing the ascent of a pyramid.” The next year he depicted Penrith and Carlisle “in the days of yore” for King Arthur; reviews reported on his “admirable scenery.”
In 1837, Macready became lessee of Covent Garden, and produced the pantomime of Peeping Tom of Coventry, for which Stanfield painted a diorama comprising a series of views in the north of Italy, Savoy, the Alps, and through “French Flanders” to the sea. A special paragraph in the play-bill recorded how the distinguished artist had, “as a sacrifice and in the kindest and most liberal manner, quitted for a short time his easel in order to present the Manager with his last work in that department of the art he has so conspicuously advanced to mark his interest in the success of the cause this Theatre labours to support.”
Two years later, Stanfield created the scenery for the revival of Henry the Fifth, including panoramic illustrations of the Storming of Harfleur, the Battle of Aginciurt, and a view of Southhampton with the departure of the Fleet. Stanfield also furnished the exquisite Sicilian views, illustrative of Acis and galatea, that would become the artist’s last “labours for the stage.”
The Grieve family’s contribution to scenic art in England was the pictorial landscapes gracefully worked up with a series of glazes. Stanfield brought the movement and excitement when he set these beautiful painted settings in motion.
To be continued…
