Robertson’s Phantasmagorias

LOT 202 - Robertson’s Phantasmagorias

Magic Lantern  - Attrib. à Etienne-Gaspard Robert, dit Robertson, between 1797 and 1830

 

 

 

Set of 25 views painted by hand on glass plates mounted on wood support; including 6 items with system (by pulling or articulation).

Intended to be projected by the fantascope through the cat's eye,[1] on a veil of percale -the mirror of the phantasmagore-, some are illustrative, but most represent demons, ghosts, we are well in full necromancy, as the author justifies at length in his memoirs. Moreover, one of these mechanical system images representing a skull with movable wings, is illustrated in the frontispiece opening the work of our projectionist.

No doubt to let his audience catch their breath, Robertson interspersed lighter views: Diogenes and his lantern, exotic characters: the Chinese, or the man in habit à la Française, some mythological views, a scatological scene, and portraits of politicians with here, the presence of Charles X, in coronation costume...

 

[1] Projection device which is an improvement of Athanasius Kircher's lantern, equipped with English optics and Argand's powerful lamp. Cat's eye is a kind of shutter, which forms an ogival opening, from which it takes its name.

Size

Approx. 250 x 140 mm

Condition

Overall in good condition, some peeling paintings, mechanisms to review.

Estimate

1500/ 2000 €

 

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BIO

Etienne-Gaspard Robert, known as Robertson (1763-1837) is very much inserted in his time. Like many of his fellow citizens of the second half of the eighteenth century, he was as interested in the Arts as in Science; and if he starts a career as a draftsman to earn his life, it is his passions for physics will make him go around Europe.

This contradiction is particularly perceptible, while fervent admirer of the spirit of the Enlightenment and popularizer of the new sciences, he claims to want to enlighten the public but begins by plunging him into the darkness of his fantasies...

Then, as a gesture of defiance against archaisms and supernatural interpretations, he begins his shows with a talk that contributes more to mystifying the spectator than to making him understand the nature of the phenomena he provokes, and…

Et souvent pour frapper un dernier coup [il] terminait les séances par cette allocution :

J'ai parcouru tous les phénomènes de la fantasmagorie ; je vous ai dévoilé les secrets des prêtres de Memphis et des illuminés ; j'ai tâché de vous montrer ce que la physique a de plus occulte, ces effets qui parurent surnaturels dans les siècles de la crédulité ; mais il me reste à vous en offrir un qui n'est que trop réel. Vous qui peut-être avez souri à mes expériences, beautés qui avez éprouvé quelques momens de terreurs, voici le seul spectacle vraiment terrible, vraiment à craindre : hommes forts, faibles, puissans, et sujets, crédules ou athées, belles ou laides, voilà le sort qui vous est réservé, voilà ce que vous serez un jour ; souvenez-vous de la fantasmagorie.

Ici la lumière reparaissait, et l’on voyait au milieu de la salle un squelette de jeune femme debout sur un piédestal.[1]

[1] Robertson, Mémoires récréatifs, scientifiques et anecdotiques, Paris, 1831, tome I, p. 284.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animated pictures with mechanism