The Magic Lantern

An adorable painting of a camera obscura poking it’s way into the frame comes to us by way of Van Loo. The subjects are actually the artist’s family, who are overshadowed by the instrument. A fascinating study of perspective and dimension, the painting named, "The Magic Lantern” is rather mis-named. It shows a young boy in the background looking into the lens while embracing the camera, and a little girl in the foreground with her hand on the frame with fingers outside of what would be the natural boundaries of a posed environment. The camera although half in the picture, is clearly not a magic lantern, but appears from the left as if “entering” into the view. This added ‘3rd” dimension reminds us of the natural environment the camera obscura provided to artists. The wooden box and lens are not peculiar to a lantern, and there appears to be no chimney. However, the circular frame is typical of the shape of lanternslides. It is unclear why Van Loo called the painting as he did. This historian has suggested that the view we see is in fact that of a lanternslide as it would appear in painted form, thus the name, and the slight humour in blending the two discoveries in the same picture. It is not known if Van Loo painted lantern slides. The painting resides in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.