Making Light of It
From humble rush lights and tallow to ruinously expensive beeswax candles, light was increasingly important in the Georgian home. Above stairs gleaming mirrors reflected the light, it rainbowed off crystal chandeliers and danced on the burnished gilt picture frames. At 19 New King Street William Herschel was frantically busy in his workshop polishing mirrors for his reflecting telescopes, but it was sunlight playing on a prism that lead him to the discovery of infra red. The new exhibition looks at William Herschel’s work on the sun, infra red and telescopes. Art Historian and biographer of William Turner, James Hamilton examines the influence of scientific discoveries relating to light on the artists of the period. The exhibition examines domestic lighting in the eighteenth century in grand houses and in a modest town house like 19 New King Street.
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