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Thursday, October 10, 2024
Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: Scenic Artist Nicholas Hinchey and the Normansfield Theatre
Drypigment.net: This post explores the life and career of Nicolas Charles Hinchey (1864-1919), a 19th-century scenic artist who specialized in painted illusion and mechanical effects for scenic spectacles. Hinchey is credited with Normansfield’s extant street scene.
Taking production science and drafting classes has given me a newfound appreciation for the architectural work that goes into creating scenic design. Seeing Hinchey’s work is impressive in itself—his use of inlaid wood and intricate linework is incredible, especially considering that the Normansfield Historic Amusement Hall was built in 1879. However, I can’t help but wonder how detailed and intense Hinchey’s drafting and ground plans must have been to be able to achieve the final outcome we see. Although drafting is used by technical designers and detailers and is thought to be more on the clean-cut and practical side of scenic design, I would argue it’s an art form in itself. At crew call, I passed some extremely complicated drafts in the scene shop for sets for past shows. There is beauty in the precision and effort that goes into a draft, especially when it’s done by hand. Knowing that it takes hours in 33 to complete a single draft of a wall, I can’t imagine the work that goes into an entire set.
I find it so cool that there are people who go around just searching for, looking up, and compiling histories for different people. I can’t imagine the amount of time that would take for someone to do it consistently. I feel like if it were me, I would just give up on the search all the time and never get anything done because everything just seems so tedious. Obviously someone has to do it so we can know and understand history and where stuff comes from and how to give credit where credit is due but still it just baffles me that someone just dedicates their time into researching and scouring the internet and different historical sites to find information to compile. It also baffles me because it seems so hard to be able to double check the work for historical accuracy and whether or not the person that is being researched is actually what is in the article so props to the author for doing all of this.
2 comments:
Taking production science and drafting classes has given me a newfound appreciation for the architectural work that goes into creating scenic design. Seeing Hinchey’s work is impressive in itself—his use of inlaid wood and intricate linework is incredible, especially considering that the Normansfield Historic Amusement Hall was built in 1879. However, I can’t help but wonder how detailed and intense Hinchey’s drafting and ground plans must have been to be able to achieve the final outcome we see. Although drafting is used by technical designers and detailers and is thought to be more on the clean-cut and practical side of scenic design, I would argue it’s an art form in itself. At crew call, I passed some extremely complicated drafts in the scene shop for sets for past shows. There is beauty in the precision and effort that goes into a draft, especially when it’s done by hand. Knowing that it takes hours in 33 to complete a single draft of a wall, I can’t imagine the work that goes into an entire set.
I find it so cool that there are people who go around just searching for, looking up, and compiling histories for different people. I can’t imagine the amount of time that would take for someone to do it consistently. I feel like if it were me, I would just give up on the search all the time and never get anything done because everything just seems so tedious. Obviously someone has to do it so we can know and understand history and where stuff comes from and how to give credit where credit is due but still it just baffles me that someone just dedicates their time into researching and scouring the internet and different historical sites to find information to compile. It also baffles me because it seems so hard to be able to double check the work for historical accuracy and whether or not the person that is being researched is actually what is in the article so props to the author for doing all of this.
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