Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Exterior view of the Amphitheatre, Nimes

Preview image of work. pencil on paper; camera lucida drawing, Exterior view of the Amphitheatre, Nimes 28966

2014.50

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Exterior view of the Amphitheatre, Nimes

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Artist

Sir John Herschel (1792 - 1871)

Title

Exterior view of the Amphitheatre, Nimes

Creation Date

September 21, 1826

Century

early 19th century

Dimensions

9 7/8 x 15 3/16 in. (25.1 x 38.6 cm)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

Europe, England

Medium and Support

pencil on paper; camera lucida drawing

Credit Line

Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

2014.50

Sir John Herschel was one of the most accomplished men of science in nineteenth-century Britain. He was especially famous as an astronomer, but also worked in math, chemistry, and botany. As a meticulous draftsman, he created drawings of botanical specimens, landscapes, and the built environment, often aided by the use of an optical device known as a camera lucida. This drawing depicts the ancient Roman amphitheater in Nimes, France. Built in the first or second century CE, it is one of the best preserved Roman ruins in France and was in Herschel’s day a frequent destination for artists and travelers on the Grand Tour. Herschel visited Nimes in 1826. He drew the exterior view of the amphitheater and annotated it with a mathematical inscription in the lower left--an indication that he was using the camera lucida to make perspectival calculations.