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The camera lucida is generally considered to have been invented by the English chemist W. H. Wollaston in 1806-07, although there is some speculation that it is a reinvention of a device described by Kepler some 200 years earlier. The term camera lucida means 'light room' and it indicates that the device didn't require the darkened space that had been necessary for the earlier camera obscura. There is no projected image and it is based on very different optical principles. A camera lucida consists of a simple prism and lens that allow an artist to see the scene that they depicting superimposed over the paper that they are drawing on, so that they can simply trace around the image. The rest of the device comprises of a clamp and extendable arm, with which it can be securely fixed in position to one side of the artist's drawing board or sketch pad with the prism set at a convenient height. A French camera lucida or 'Chambre Claire Universelle', made by Breveté S.G...

The current Vermeer exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge has reopened the debate about the significance of perspective in the construction of paintings. The Music Lesson, 1662  (source: Wikimedia Commons) The role of perspective and more specifically the use of a camera obscura in the work of Johannes Vermeer has been explored in recent years by a number of authors. Dubery and Willats (1983) demonstrated that the accurate perspective constructions that underlay Vermeer's paintings made it possible to work backwards from the finished painting and reconstruct the architectural space in three dimensions, using Leonardo's distant point method. In 2001, David Hockney and Philip Steadman both proposed convincing arguments that indicated that this accuracy was based not on a geometrically constructed perspectival space, but was instead derived from the use of a camera obscura. The camera obscura (literally a 'dark room') is based on the optical principles of lenses ...

The Art of Yorkshire garden at the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show celebrates the work of a number of artists who were either born in the county or who have been inspired by its landscape. David Hockney is represented through a giant iPad on an easel which frames views of the garden, acknowledging the continuing significance of the notion of the picture plane or perspective window.  The illusion of a painted surface is enhanced by the cut-away easel. (photo copyright © Russell Light) Hockney has extensively explored the use of optical devices such as the camera lucida in the history of art. His recent exhibitions have featured digital art on iPads made using the app Brushes. The garden, which also features Barbara Hepworth's 'Ascending Form', won a Silver Medal at the show. A 3 part film with an interview with the designer, Kate Dundas, is available on the Guardian website. Sources: D Hockney (2001) - 'Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters...