The model and sketches above are from the Musée D’Orsay in Paris and show a section of the Paris Opera (Garnier) and proposals for the original ceiling in the auditorium, which is now covered by a 1964 painting by Marc Chagall.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
A couple more dioramas from the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.
As before, the difference between viewing the single image and seeing them in 3D is illuminating. Although not as accomplished as the best work at the American Museum of Natural History, there are quite a few good dioramas in LA.
See the previous post for suggestions on how to view in stereo, or use the Jason Robbins method – which I tried yesterday and have to say works really well – of putting your nose right up to the divide between the two images and move back until the image is in focus.
In either method you will see three images – concentrate on the middle one.
I have made a few posts on James Perry Wilson’s work. If you are interested in finding out more about him, the place to go is here: (or click on the word here)
http://peabody.yale.edu/james-perry-wilson
Michael Anderson has been writing Wilson’s biography for some time and has just released chapter eight, which covers Wilson’s work in the North American Mammal Hall at the American Museum of Natural History. Well worth a read.
When I was doing my research into Wilson’s projection methods Michael Anderson was amazingly helpful, both with his knowledge and expertise but also in arranging access to material and sites. He is the Wilson expert.
Hippo
Here is the Hippo Group from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. I am afraid I do not have any details of those involved. Usual process for registering the stereoscopic view – if you are having difficulty finding t make it smaller and move your head side to side slightly until the images sit horizontally in your view.
Cold Bog Diorama
While I was digging out the photographs of the Big Horn Sheep diorama I came across this pair I took of the Cold Bog Diorama, also at the Yale Peabody Museum (also by James Perry Wilson). You can see more about this diorama here and here. In the second of these links is an assembly of Wilson’s survey slides. Here (below) is the same assembly done in Bridge/Photoshop, somewhat dissolving the frames and compensating for the faceted picture plane as Wilson’s Dual Grid method would.
Cold Bog Diorama survey
See two posts below for advice on viewing stereoscopic pairs (for the top image).
Big Horn Sheep (normal)
Big Horn Sheep (mirrored)
Here are two more views of the Big Horn Sheep group at the Yale Peabody Museum, with a background painting by James Perry Wilson. The top view is the right way round for the diorama and the lower one is mirrored – the correct way round for the original site near Banff in the Canadian Rockies. Again, if anyone recognises the exact location I would be grateful to hear from you.
It is hard to see the curve of the background shell in these views so I will assemble a slightly sideways stereoscopic view to see if that helps, and will post it if it does.
Employ the usual technique to resolve the stereoscopic images – make them small enough so that when you go cross eyed you can register the same sheep over each other when you go cross-eyed. You will see three images as you do this – concentrate on the middle one and try to relax. You can buy glasses (lorgnettes) to help resolve them and these definitely help when the images are larger, but I find I get a better three dimensionality when working without them.
Big Horn Sheep
Big Horn Sheep
Big Horn Sheep
A few posts ago (here) I asked if anyone knew the location that this diorama at the Yale Peabody Museum represents. It is near Banff in the Canadian Rockies and one suggestion since then is that it is in the Bow Valley where Banff resides (thank you Mr. Bergem). Here are some snaps of the diorama (check against the survey photograph) that you can see has been mirrored. It is a wonderful diorama so if you are in New Haven do make sure you se it! There are others there, especially the Longshore diorama, that will also make the trip worthwhile.
Again, if anyone recognizes the exact location of the site (reversed) I would be very grateful to hear from you. Below is J.P.Wilson’s test drawing on a model of the diorama. You can see the projection lines for his dual-grid system of diorama projection on the model floor.
Big Horn Sheep
Big Horn Sheep site
The panorama above is an assembly of the photographs that James Perry Wilson took as a survey near Banff for his Big Horn Sheep group at the Yale Peabody Museum. Do you recognize the valley? If you look at the diorama at the Peabody you will notice that Wilson mirrored the image. It is located in a slightly awkward corner and the shell is a-symetrical. The part of the shell that is closest to the viewer is on the left hand side and for some reason Wilson located the distant valley (on the right above) on this part of the background while the closest part, to the left of the image above, he located at the deepest part of the diorama. I will post some pictures of the diorama in a couple of days. If you know this valley please click on this post and then leave a message, or click on ‘leave a comment’ on the left. The photographs are taken around sixty years ago so the trees will have changed somewhat.
I am working on a camera dedicated to the diorama and would like to use it on the original site as well, just as with the Cold Bog Camera (see Cold bog camera and cold bog camera two).
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Grizzly Bear
The Grizzly Bear group at the American Museum of Natural History (1941) has a foreground by Raymond de Lucia and a background by James Perry Wilson. If you look at the Coyote group a few posts back you will notice the seamless tie-in between the painting and the material foreground. Here the foreground horizon into the valley makes a clear scenic break (in which there is a tiny bird flying between the painting and the foreground, held on a wire) and the two are assembled by view but do not touch.
There is a photograph of Raymond de Lucia acting as if he was being mauled by one of the bears that did not amuse the directors at the time.
Use the usual procedure to resolve the stereoscopic images.
While these are great dioramas, I am obviously partly also using them to keep the blog alive while working on some new stuff. I hope to post some fresh work in the next week or so, so please keep checking for new posts.
White Rhino
The background for the White Rhinoceros group at the American Museum of Natural History was painted by James Perry Wilson in 1937. Apparently the back of the rhino closest to the background is painted white to reflect as much light as possible in the tight space and to avoid a shadow on the vertical surface. The painted detail in the mud around the pool and the reflections in the water is very accomplished but not up to the standard of the water in Wilson’s Coyote group (see Dioramas 2) where he also made the survey drawings and photographs. If you are looking at these as a stereo pair you can just see the very low ceiling masked as dark clouds.
Use the usual procedure to reconcile the stereo pair of pictures.
Nat Chard 