Part 395: William Telbin and Henry Telbin
In 1863, William Telbin and his son Henry painted scenes for a panorama about the tour made in the East by the Prince of Wales. At that same time, Francis Bedford created a photographic exhibition of the same tour. Here is an article about the Telbins’ project that was published in Art Journal (May 1863, Vol. 2, No. 5, page 101).
“Minor Topics of the Month. Panorama of the Prince of Wales’s Tour.”
“The Easter novelty at the Haymarket Theatre is the production of a series of panoramic views, illustrative of the tour made in the East by the Prince of Wales. To ensure the utmost accuracy, Mr. Buckstone sent his scene-painters—Mr. Telbin and his son—the same journey, and the result has been a series of pictures of singular fidelity and beauty. The series begins at Cairo and ends at Constantinople, including the sacred Island of Philae on the Nile, Jerusalem, the Jordan, the Dead Sea, Nazareth, Mount Hormon, Damascus, Beyrout, and other interesting localities. It is an especial merit in these pictures that they are quite free of all conventionalism, and the artist has boldly delineated the atmospheric and topographical peculiarities of the Holy Land.
The glaring sunlight, the arid desert, the deep green foliage, the gorgeously tinted sunsets, the brilliant moonlights, the sky studded with lamp-like stars, is all reproduced in these clever pictures. We may especially note the grand and comprehensive view of Cairo as an admirable day-scene, and that of the Dead Sea as an equally good picture of evening in the East The deep shadows and blood-red lights from the setting sun, the fleecy clouds of rosy hue in a sky of gold, could only be painted by an Eastern traveller, and certainly not appreciated by any one who knows no other than an English autumn evening.
The beauty of Mr. Telbin’s work will appeal to all, but his true critics must be few—the few who have travelled where he has travelled. In truth, to the large mass of theatre-goers the whole series may have little attraction; indeed the interest of many of these views depends on associations, which render them more fitted for a lecture-room, in which we some day hope to see them, with more views added, and a sensible description in place of the dramatic trash that now introduces them so unfitly. It is due, however, to the public to say, that they fully appreciated what they entirely understood; and the wonderful reality of the water in the scene on the river Jordon was rapturously applauded; it was almost impossible to divest the mind of the idea that the eye rested on glass.
The night entertainment in a Turkish kiosk on the banks of the river, near Damascus, was also a great popular success; here the combined effects of lamplight and moonlight were most happily given. It was a veritable Arabian night’s entertainment, and for the moment the spectator was fairly carried away by the illusion of the scene. The intended grand climax—the marriage scene at Windsor—was flat after all this; it was “of the stage—stagey,” and had not the truth and freshness of the Eastern series.”
To be continued…
