From 18 October 2015 to 6 March 2016, Panorama Mesdag is showing a unique collection of surprising and beguiling stereo photos. Join Mesdag on a 3D walk around The Hague and Scheveningen, and get a vivid sense of how Mesdag’s world looked at the end of the 19th century. The exhibition is being organised in partnership with The Hague City Archives.
3D is the viewing technique of the future. But stereophotography was already the rage at the end of the 19th century. The technique involves taking two images of a scene from different viewpoints. When you look at them through a special stereo viewer, you experience a spatial illusion, as in Mesdag’s panorama.
Stereophotography is the perfect medium to bring to life the two contrasting worlds inhabited by Mesdag: the fashionable cosmopolitan society of The Hague on the one side, and the impoverished fishing community of Scheveningen on the other.
Saunter at Mesdag’s side around the majestic 19th-century squares, avenues, and streets of The Hague. Walk with him from Koninginnegracht, where his friend Jozef Israëls had his studio, to the artists’ society Pulchri on the elegant street Lange Voorhout.
Then you can turn to discover how Mesdag saw and painted Scheveningen. The everyday lives of fishermen, the beach and the flat-bottomed fishing vessels known as bomschuiten: these scenes continued to inspire him for thirty years. Some unique photos were taken after the devastating storm of 1894, when most of the bomschuiten were lost. The everyday street scene was an ideal subject for stereophotography, and the technique gave it an added dimension.
The historical photographs can be studied through a stereo viewer, but visitors can also opt to use virtual reality 3D glasses. A special app has been developed for this purpose by VR/Heroes. The exhibition will include old film material from the Magic Lantern Museum of The Hague.
With this exhibition, Panorama Mesdag presents a multifaceted picture of the two worlds in which Mesdag moved, and offers a broad historical perspective with the aid of new and old viewing techniques.
2015 Mesdag Year
This year, The Hague is celebrating 100 years of the cultural heritage of Hendrik Willem Mesdag. At the end of the 19th century, Mesdag helped to place The Hague on the cultural map, not just in the Netherlands but internationally as well. Besides being a gifted marine painter, Mesdag also inspired numerous painters of the Hague School. Mesdag and the city of The Hague have been inextricably linked ever since. With a range of exhibitions, symposiums and other events, museums and cultural institutions around the city will be illuminating the many faces of this icon of The Hague in 2015. You can find more information at www.mesdagjaar.nl
