Loutherbourg, Philip James de

Loutherbourg, Philip James de (1740–1812), German painter, who had for some time made a special study of stage illusion and mechanics before visiting London in 1771. There he met Garrick, who two years later appointed him scenic director at Drury Lane, a position he retained under Sheridan. He was particularly successful in producing the illusion of fire, volcanoes, sun, moonlight, and cloud-effects, and invented strikingly effective devices for thunder, guns, wind, the lapping of waves, and the patter of hail and rain. He was the first designer to bring a breath of naturalism into the artificial scenic conventions of the day, and paved the way for the realistic detail and local colour favoured by Charles Kemble. A visit to the Peak district in 1779 resulted in an act-drop depicting a romantic landscape—possibly the earliest example of a scenic curtain in Western Europe—which remained in use until Drury Lane was destroyed by fire in 1809. For Sheridan's The Critic (1779), in which Mr Puff refers to him by name, he executed a striking design of Tilbury Fort, and he was also responsible for some excellent new transparencies used in a revival of The Winter's Tale in the same year. He was probably the first designer in England to break up the scene by the use of perspective, and also the first to use built stuff, though somewhat sparingly. Much of his best work was lavished on unremarkable plays, to which he gave a momentary popularity. Shortly after preparing the scenery for the first dramatization of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1781) by Sheridan—the first act alone had eight changes—Loutherbourg left the theatre, mainly on account of a dispute over his salary, and devoted much of his time to a remarkable scenic exhibition, the ‘Ediophusikon’, whose influence lingered on until 1820, when Elliston attempted to reproduce in King Lear the powerful effects of storm and tempest which Loutherbourg had created for his exhibition.