The Hague - Mesdag Panorama

At Zeestraat 65B is the Mesdag Panorama, the largest of its kind in the world. Housed in a rotunda, this gigantic picture, 120m/130yd long by 14m/45ft high, was painted by H. W. Mesdag and his wife Sientje Mesdag-Van Houten, together with G. H. Breitner, B. J. Blommers and Th. de Bock. It depicts Scheveningen as it was around 1880, with charming views of the sea, the beach and the dunes. Panoramas, the "cinema of the 19th century", were the first optical medium designed to create an illusion of three-dimensional effect. The circular painting is indirectly lit from above, the light source remaining out of sight. Between the picture and the spectator is an intervening area - in this case dune sand - with real objects or mock-ups of real buildings to heighten the illusion, leaving the spectator with no point of reference in reality. The production of panoramas was a costly business. The artists, directed by a team leader, copied on to canvas fixed to scaffolding the sketches which they had made in the field. The painting then traveled from town to town like a circus, often suffering damage in the process. The coming of photography, the cinema and illustrated magazines ended the era of the panorama, which had been a means of informing the public about great events such as battles and about distant lands. Only some 20 panoramas throughout the world have survived to the present day.

This panorama, one of the last survivors from the 19th century, is famed for its three- dimensional effect and is an outstanding example of the work of the Hague School. The building also contains a collection of pictures belonging to Mesdag and his wife and a historical survey of 19th century panoramas.