Claude Mirror
The Claude mirror was an optical instrument widely popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was named after its ability to transform a landscape view into something reminiscent of a painting by Claude Lorraine. These small, black, convex mirrors, usually hand-sized, were used extensively by artists and tourists to contemplate, reconfigure and transcribe landscape. They were wielded on picturesque tours of Britain, the Continent and North America, and utilized by influential writers and theorists such as Thomas Gray, the Rev William Gilpin, Uvedale Price and Thomas West. In areas such as the Wye Valley or the Lake District, tourists could purchase maps and mirrors at opticians, stationers and tourist attractions. At prescribed viewing stations (still marked on our Ordnance Survey maps), they would turn their backs to the scene, hold up a mirror, and look at the framed and transformed view. The distorted perspective, altered colour saturation and compressed tonal values of the reflection resulted in a loss of detail, but an overall unification of form and line. The Claude Mirror essentially edited a natural scene, making its scale and diversity manageable, throwing its picturesque qualities into relief and - crucially - making it much easier to draw and record. In this project, we have created a modern-day viewing station through the installation of a large Claude mirror and a high-resolution webcam. The mirror creates a view of Tintern Abbey, a well-known picturesque viewpoint, and is a response to many existing historical paintings, prints and drawings of the Abbey. The Claude mirror may also be visited in person free of charge on the grounds of the Abbey Hotel.