A Balloon Prospect from above the Clouds
Description:
In this view of parts of Cheshire and Lancashire, as if seen from the car of a balloon sailing far above them, the familiar has become strange. In contrast to more conventional prospects, we are looking down at the earth rather than out to the horizon; and from this perspective the view comprises four, relatively flat, horizontal layers, all lying parallel to the surface of the page.
The first layer, lying some distance below the balloon, is marked by numerous white-and-grey clouds, of various sizes and shapes, that reach up towards us, as if they were the tops of wooly, floating mountains. They seem playfully to frame and reframe the surface of the earth far below. Clustering near them are patches of deep blue, a representation perhaps of "the blue Fields of Air" described by Baldwin (147).
In contrast to the buoyant forms of the clouds, the earth seems to have been flattened. Its once striking features—hills, cliffs, trees, forests, villages, churches, and so on—are now little more than abstract patterns on a mottled, dark-green canvas. As Baldwin remarks in astonishment, "Helsbye-Hill, tho' upwards of 600 feet high, appeared from the car of the balloon, to be on the same level with the grounds below"; and, writing of Chester, "The Whole had a beautiful and rich Look; not like a Model, but a coloured Map" (Airopaidia 78, 43).
The only terrestrial element to avoid this fate are the rivers, which seem to occupy an intermediate zone, midway between the layers of earth and cloud. In Sketches and Hints Humphry Repton notes that because water reflects light "like a mirror," bodies of water often seem closer to us than they are in reality (Repton 33). Perhaps to simulate this effect, the rivers in this prospect (which, Baldwin reports, when viewed above appear to be coloured red (Airopaidia 41-2, 106-7, 147, 173-4)) have been painted a light pink, which seems to raise them above the heavy dark-green canvas, as if they were claiming kinship with the clouds. These remarkable forms reach across the flattened landscape in long serpentine lines, almost as if they were living members of the prospect. Their "Doublings," as Baldwin notes, are "so various and fantastic as to exceed the Limits of Credibility" (144). On occasion they seem even to reach up over the edge of the clouds before plunging through them back to the earth below. And although this optical illusion can easily be explained—a cloud is thinnest and therefore most transparent on its margins; we are really seeing through the cloud to the river below—the visual effect is nevertheless striking.
The fourth layer is akin to a transparent sheet, placed somewhere between Baldwin and the layer of clouds beneath him, on which the wandering path of the balloon, represented by a continuous black line, has been inscribed. Blown by the wind, its meandering path variously recalls the serpentine tracks of the rivers and the wooly outlines of the clouds. Rather than standing safely outside this aerial prospect, the artist is immersed within it, completing our picture of a scene formed, and then reformed again and again, by the constantly changing relations between earth/water, cloud/air, light, and moving-observer.
This transparency is supplemented by an "Explanatory Print," placed alongside "A Balloon Prospect" in Airopaidia, which functions as if it were a second transparency, intended to be placed over the design as a whole. Where the first transparency tracks Baldwin's movements inside a constantly-changing visual environment; the second locates the same movements, and the aerial places he explores, in relation to a more familiar environment, glimpsed only on the outskirts of the first, which is conjured by the names Chester, Helsbye, Frodsham Bridge, Rixton Moss, the River Mersey, and so on.
This complex visual ensemble is completed with Baldwin's instructions about how viewer and picture ought to be positioned in relation to each other, and with his suggestion of an alternate frame for the design:
N.B. The Circular View is seen to the best Advantage, when placed flat on a Table or Chair, and rather in the Shade: the Eye looking directly down upon the Picture.Whoever will be at the Trouble of viewing distinct Parts of the Balloon-Prospect, throu' a very small Opening, made by rolling a Sheet of Paper into the Form of a hollow Tube, and applying it close to either Eye, at the same Time shutting the other . . . may form a very accurate Idea of the Manner, in which the Prospect below was represented gradually in Succession, to the Aironaut; whose Sight was bounded by a circularity of Vapour . . . (Airopaidia V)
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Location:
Accession Number:
Thordarson T 203
Height (in centimeters):
24
Width (in centimeters):
17
Printing Context
"A Balloon Prospect from Above the Clouds" was included (facing page 154) in Thomas Baldwin's Airopaidia: Containing the Narrative of a Balloon Excursion from Chester, the eighth of September, 1785, taken from Minutes made during the Voyage . . . (Chester: Printed for the Author, 1786).Associated Events
Thomas Baldwin's "Balloon Excursion from Chester, on the eighth of September, 1785." Baldwin had earlier been unable to fund by subscription the construction of a balloon (Thébaud-Sorger 47). On this occasion he was assisted by Lunardi, who provided the balloon, prepared it for flight, and was on hand for the ascent from Chester.Associated Places
Chester, Cheshire, England (on the River Dee)—where Baldwin's "Balloon Excursion" began.Associated Texts
The image is one of four full-page designs included in Thomas Baldwin's Airopaidia (1786). It appears alongside "The Explanatory Print," which identifies the key cities and rivers visible in "A Balloon Prospect from Above the Clouds."Subject
Baldwin describes this image variously as a "Chromatic View," "Specimen of Balloon Geography," and "Balloon Prospect" "of the Country between Chester, Warrington and Rixton-Moss in Lancashire: shewing the whole Extent of the aërial Voyage; with the meandering Track of the Balloon throu' the Air") (i, iv). The unprecedented subject of the design emerges in the play between these three descriptors and the tripartite "object" they are attempting to define.Theme
This image highlighted the sublime nature of aerial views. The effect is accentuated by the inclusion of the clouds which partly blocked Baldwin’s view of the ground beneath him.Significance
This image is one of the two earliest pictorial-views taken from the car of a balloon—the other is Baldwin's "A View from the Balloon at its Greatest Elevation" (Thébaud-Sorger 47). In this context, its significance derives from its pioneering attempt to represent this aerial world, in such a way that its elements could be comprehended and its shifting "landscapes" vicariously experienced by the viewer.Function
This image functions as an overview and step-by-step record of Baldwin's balloon-journey from Chester to Rixton Moss, and as a synoptic-dynamic study of the cloudscape/landscape he traversed. In the context of Airopaidia, it also functions as an advertisement for "Balloon Geography"; an illustration of the chromatic foundations of the aerial view; and as contrary to "The Balloon over Helsybe Hill in Cheshire" (each design adopts a point of view visible only on the margins of the other).Bibliography
Cavallo, Tiberius. The History and Practice of Aerostation. London: Printed for the author, and sold by C. Dilly; P. Elmsly; and J. Stockdale, 1785.Long Title
"A Balloon Prospect from above the Clouds" Publish'd May 1st. 1786, by T. Baldwin[,] Chester, [included in] Airopaidia: Containing the Narrative of a Balloon Excursion from Chester, the eighth of September, 1785, taken from Minutes made during the Voyage: Hints on the Improvement of Balloons and Mode of Inflation by Steam: Means to Prevent their Descent over Water: Occasional Enquiries into the State of the Atmosphere, favouring their Direction: With various Philosophical Observations and Conjectures. To which is subjoined, Menstruation of Heights by the Barometer, made Plain: With extensive Tables. The Whole serving as an Introduction to Aerial Navigation: with a copious Index. By Thomas Baldwin, Esq. A.M. Chester: Printed for the author, by J. Fletcher; and sold by W. Lowndes, No. 77, Fleet-Street, London; J. Poole, Chester; and other Booksellers, 1786.Engraver:
Image Date:
5 January 1786
Publisher:
J. Fletcher