Sir Joshua Reynolds's Camera Obscura
Manufactured in England
Mid 18th century

This camera obscura was once owned by the artist Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). The mirror and lens mounted in the turret project an image onto the base of the instrument.

Reynolds may have used the instrument for drawing or he may just have studied the images it produced. He said in one of his lectures to the Royal Academy that an artist with powers of selection could make a superior representation of a scene to that produced by a camera obscura, in spite of its true picture of nature.

When collapsed and folded up this camera obscura looks like a large leather-bound book.

© Science Museum, London
Science and Society Picture Library