On the passage of a man of the theatre through a rather brief moment in time: Henri Robin, performing astronomy in nineteenth century Paris

Abstract

After an extensive tour throughout Europe, including venues such as Amsterdam, London and Brussels, the French entrepreneur and magician Henri Robin arrived in Paris in 1862, where he opened a new theatre on the legendary Boulevard du Temple. His arrival remarkably coincided with the destruction of this renowned hub of popular visual culture as it was cleared to make way for Hausmann's far-reaching program of urban modernisation. Nonetheless, Robin started providing scientific entertainment for audiences to be both beguiled and informed, and managed to do so very successfully throughout the following five years. His evening shows consisted of a mix of astronomical sciences, magic and the evocation of ghosts. This article addresses Robin's career in relation to the changing ideas of theatricality and his remarkable persistence in commingling astronomy and magic within a theatrical context. It will show that Robin's initial concept of theatricality is concretized in his explicit demonstration to the spectator that they were at the theatre, and that this was indeed the place where the wonders of the heavens could pry open the matter of their own understanding. Correspondingly, Robin's career fizzled out during the Second Empire, when scientific activities were dispersing rapidly across different public sites, altering and reshaping the appeal of the physiques amusantes. The rise of professional conférences alongside the waning appeal of what the critic Théophile Gaultier termed 'ocular spectacle,' eventually forced theatre and astronomy into fixed and discreet domains. As such, the story of Henri Robin and his science-based spectacles articulates major shifts in the various relationships between art and science, and theatre and astronomy.

Larger than Life

“…For the first time, people could see things that were invisible to the naked eye (see Wynants 2019). At the same time, from the mid-19th century onwards, magicians referring to themselves as "Professor" demonstrated insights from the fields of astronomy and physics on theatre podiums and at fairs (see Vanhoutte and Wynants 2017). This also happened to be a time when interest in the telescope was turning stargazing into public entertainment.…”

Eurekadabra: Sciencie, technology and Magic

“…Por lo tanto, surgió un movimiento teatral que combinaba los conceptos de ciencia y espectáculo. A estos lugares se les conoció como teatros científicos (Vanhoutte & Wynants, 2017). En algunos de ellos se utilizaban ilusiones ópticas y juegos de espejos para generar apariciones fantasmagóricas sobre el escenario del teatro (Lachapelle, 2008(Lachapelle, y 2009, lo que provocaba un efecto muy similar a lo que actualmente conocemos como hologramas.…”

“…Indistintamente, el público se maravillaba con demostraciones de linternas mágicas, fantasmagorías o fuegos artificiales. Uno de los magos más activos de la época, Henri Robin, afirmaba que sin la ciencia la gente ya no se divertiría (Vanhoutte & Wynants, 2017).…”

The travelling lantern: the Courtois and Grandsart-Courtois family theatres as transcultural mediators at the nineteenth-century fair

“…But the involvement of the lay public in science also grew in other areas. In museums, zoos and botanical gardens, but also during public lectures and theatre performances, science presented its latest results to an audience with a very heterogeneous level of education (Fyfe & Lightman, eds, 2007;Kember 2009;Kember et al, eds, 2012;Raichvarg & Jacques, eds, 1991;Vanhoutte & Wynants 2017). This was part of a general and politically motivated effort to bridge the growing gap between professional scientists and lay audiences.…”