- 332
Henry Aston Barker British, 1774-1856
Description
- Henry Aston Barker
- A Series of Eight Views, forming a Panorama of the celebrated City of Constantinople and its environs, taken from the town of Galata
Exhibited
London, The Great Rotunda, Leicester Square 'Thomas Palser and Henry Aston Barker' , 1813
Literature
Catalogue Note
In 1797, Robert Barker took out a patent which gave him exclusive rights to exhibit 360ยบ paintings mimicking nature. His first exhibition was of a painting of London and for this friends provided him with a title sufficiently striking to gain a permanent place in the English language. 'Panorama', derived from the Greek words meaning 'all' and 'view' had its first use in 1791 in the advertisements for the picture of London.
Together with his son Henry Aston Barker, Robert opened a new and fashionable venue in Leicester Square, 'The Panorama', where examples of this new art form were exhibited to an eager public. A form of education and entertainment, the Barkers' panoramas soon became 'all the rage' according to the artist John Constable. When their monopoly ended in 1801, the Barkers realised that they had to take steps to ensure their patrons were not enticed away to rival exhibitions. As a result, views from all parts of the globe started to appear at Leicester Square and in 1801 the first foreign city to be presented at 'The Panorama' was Constantinople. The present aquatint plates form a reproduction of the view. Indeed, they represent the only large-scale reproduction of any of the views exhibited at the Strand at Leicester Square.
The Atabey copy of this panorama was not joined and mounted. It had 2 facsimile text leaves (a title and index) and one of the sections was also in facsimile.