Our friend Jan Cees could not wait to surprise us with a visit to The Hague near his home in Nordwijk, Netherlands. He told us he had something special he wanted us to see, and then carried himself like a kid with a secret until we arrived at Panorama Mesda. The museum itself looks like any another, until you walk down the long hallway and up the narrow wooden staircase into the viewing area. What you find at the top is not just a painting; it is a 360 degree stunner that drops your jaw, leaves you open-mouthed.
Panorama Mesdag was completed by six painters under the direction of Hendrik Mesdag of the Hague School in a record 4 months. It depicts the village of Scheveningen, the beach at The Hague, during the 1800s. When you ascend, and reach the enormous gazebo roof at the top of the stairs, your ears pressurize with silence--the hum of whispered voices in the background. You are drawn to follow your eyes around the massive 360 degree cylindrical canvas illusion that steeps you in village life through intricate paintings, as if you are looking at the bustle of the distant past.
To create this difficult work, Mesdag engraved an illustration of the panorama on a glass bowl poised on his head. By etching what he could see through the bowl he knew exactly where things were to be located on the canvas. He translated the illustration into mathematics in order to map the scene accurately.
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