{"id":12468,"date":"2019-08-18T23:32:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T23:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/?post_type=kbe_knowledgebase&p=12468"},"modified":"2019-08-18T23:32:06","modified_gmt":"2019-08-18T23:32:06","slug":"lighting","status":"publish","type":"kbe_knowledgebase","link":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/?kbe_knowledgebase=lighting","title":{"rendered":"Lighting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

to the situation with regard to lighting, Ellen Moody in her Chronology for Mansfield Park,<\/em> estimates that this scene in takes place at the end of July. Even though it was a summer\u2019s evening, between ten and eleven o\u2019clock, it would still be dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Fanny, away\nfrom the main lighting in the room may indeed be hidden in the shadows on the\nsofa. Now, as to whether it is deliberate slacking, or just because she is\nexhausted with a headache that she is hidden in the shadows, I leave you to\ndetermine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to\nenvisage lighting in these rooms form our perspective, is rather difficult when\nwe are used to the brilliance of modern electrical lighting, I agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do take a look\nat this interesting picture dating from 1820 by Henry Sargent, of a tea party\nin New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is a very\nrare illustration of lighting characteristic in a house at that time and it\nshows how guests would have used a formally arranged room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The light\nsources are the branches of candles arranged on brackets or torcheres. Candles\nin candlesticks are placed near overmantle looking glasses to multiply the\nlight, and there is also light from the fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, applying\nthis to the long room at Mansfield, I’m not sure\nthat the fires would have been lit in Mansfield Park\non a night at the end of July, so I think it safe to assume that the only\nsource of light in that long room would have been candles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see\nfrom this picture that there are pockets of very dark areas (see the centre of\nthe room pictured) and it is no doubt that poor Fanny became invisible and\nforgotten taking rest on the sofa after her exhausting day in the hot sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is another\npicture of a more modest establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is a\ndrawing by John Harden; one of a series showing how people used to group\nthemselves in their rooms according to light and heat sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are the\nequivalent of a modern day snap shot an I find them fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Harden was\na gentleman and a talented amateur artist who was on friendly terms with many\nprofessional artists such as John Constable. In 1803 he married the daughter of\nan Edinburgh\nbanker and in 1804 took the lease of Brathay Hall in Westmoreland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His drawings,\nwhich date from 1804 show how active an early 19th century family could be-\nreading, writing, painting, sewing, often grouped around a table, particularly\nat night when they could share the light of the candles reinforced by the light\nfrom the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the sadly missed John Cornforth wrote about these pictures in his book English Interiors 1798-1848: The Quest for Comfort<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few pictures\nillustrate so graphically the lighting of rooms at that period. They also show\nthe mobility of furniture and the way an informal impression arose from picking\nup sewing tables and placing them where needed.<\/em> 
\nPage 132.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture\nabove shows that ladies were able to sew in this type of light. Obviously it\ndepended on the eyesight of the individual, but yes, it could be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that P2\nand S+S2 did a very good job of showing just\nhow little light as available in the evenings in these rooms, unless\nchandeliers were involved and a place was very brightly lit for an assembly or\nrout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

to the situation with regard to lighting, Ellen Moody in her Chronology for Mansfield Park, estimates that this scene in takes place at the end of July. Even though it was a summer\u2019s evening, between ten and eleven o\u2019clock, it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","kbe_taxonomy":[256,261,269],"kbe_tags":[374],"class_list":["post-12468","kbe_knowledgebase","type-kbe_knowledgebase","status-publish","hentry","kbe_taxonomy-arts-leisure","kbe_taxonomy-households","kbe_taxonomy-mansfield-park","kbe_tags-lighting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/kbe_knowledgebase\/12468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/kbe_knowledgebase"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/kbe_knowledgebase"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/kbe_knowledgebase\/12468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12471,"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/kbe_knowledgebase\/12468\/revisions\/12471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kbe_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fkbe_taxonomy&post=12468"},{"taxonomy":"kbe_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fkbe_tags&post=12468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}