Panorama Mesdag, Hague (must see)

You seem to be in a dream. Go back in time. It is about 140 years ago. You are standing atop a dune, high above the fishing village of Scheveningen, Holland. The view is overwhelming. You can see all around, 360 degrees. The fishing boats have only sails. When they are beached, horses are used. Only a distant steamboat disturbs the horizon.

Reality check. You are not in another time on top of a dune. You are in the middle of the Panorama Mesdag. But it is a dream. The Panorama is also called a cyclorama. It is the work of Hendik Willem Mesdag. Mesdag was a "marine" painter of the Hague School. Mesdag's wife, Sientje, assisted Mesdag in the painting, completed in 1881.

Housed in a special room in The Hague, the panorama is a cylindrical painting 46 feet high and 130 feet in diameter. The foreground is artificial terrain which hides the base of the painting and helps the illusion.

Unfortunately, the rage for cycloramas in exhibits was coming to a close. The company that hired Mesdag was going belly-up like the distant fish. Mesdag bought the painting and paid off the debts from his own resources. The Panorama is the oldest painting of its kind still in its original place. We should climb the hill again for another look.