THREE MILES OF CANVASS

July 19, 2023 9:19 AM

At 1275 feet, the painted narrative scroll The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage 'Round the World(Narrated video) is perhaps not quite as long as advertised when first displayed in 1848, but the longest painting in America, now housed at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, is still pretty long.

Found via Tom Shapiro's round-up of comic adaptations of Melville's Moby-Dick

posted by Alvy Ampersand (12 comments total)

Didn't Jessamyn post about this some time ago when it was on display down there in New Bedford? I just missed going to see it, IIRC. *clickety-click* Yeah, the linked page says that the exhibition was in 2018.

(Not flagging as a dupe, sine this is so damn cool.)
posted by wenestvedt at 9:37 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Yep: previously. Still awesome!
posted by wenestvedt at 9:37 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

That is (unsurprisingly) a much better post! Weird, I feel like I didn't see it when it did the Check For Previous Before Posting. Assuming this doesn't get deleted for dupe, everyone go look at that one!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:02 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

It is indeed, very long. A whale of a story, one might say.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:31 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Just in parallel, apparently the IMAX prints of Oppenheimer are 11 miles long [Variety].
posted by hippybear at 1:12 PM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

raft of the medusa is a *giant* piece.
posted by j_curiouser at 1:47 PM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

I have never seen this, but I have seen the panorama painting of the Battle of Waterloo at the battlefield site, which I think was painted in the late 1800s. Panorama paintings are one of those historical artifacts that have to be seen to be believed - they are truly impressive works of arts and while the impact nowadays would not be the same, they are undeniably striking.
posted by fortitude25 at 2:05 PM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Okay, so just my own opinion but others have also said this... what's so strange about walking up to the Grand Canyon for the first time is that it is so vast, it feels like a panorama/cyclorama painting. You have to really journey a bit of a distance along the edge you're on before any kind of parallax effect begins to move the other things you're seeing against the background for you to be able to truly, visually, mentally grasp the scale of what you're looking at. Maybe an eagle flying, or these days more likely a helicopter, will help snap things into scale for the human on the edge. But really, it just feels like a gigantic painting when you first approach it.
posted by hippybear at 2:10 PM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

350 foot panorama of the Mississippi at the St. Louis Art Museum

Panorama Mesdag in The Hague, with a scene of sand dunes.

Apparently there is a distinction between a moving panorama (like the whaling panorama and the one of the Mississippi) and one intended for display in a cyclorama (like the one in the Hague.)

Info via wikipedia article Panoramic painting.
posted by larrybob at 2:18 PM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Article on the Cyclorama of Jerusalem in Quebec, which is currently closed and in danger of not reopening.
posted by larrybob at 3:16 PM on July 19, 2023

There's an amazing cyclorama at Gettysburg. Really they are just so cool, I think we should bring them back.
posted by mygothlaundry at 3:40 PM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

I saw it! Here's a nitter link to a few pictures for people who maybe saw that other link but don't want to go to that site.

what's so strange about walking up to the Grand Canyon for the first time is that it is so vast, it feels like a panorama/cyclorama painting.

I felt EXACTLY the same way about the Grand Canyon!
posted by jessamyn at 5:26 PM on July 19, 2023 [4 favorites]