Claude glass

Claude glasses have the effect of reducing and simplifying the colour and tonal range of scenes and scenery to give them a painterly quality.

The user would turn their back on the scene to observe the framed view through the tinted mirror — in a sort of pre-photographic lens — which added the picturesque aesthetic of a subtle gradation of tones.

[2] In his influential A Guide to the Lakes (1778), Thomas West explained "The person using it ought always to turn his back to the object that he views.

William Gilpin, the inventor of the picturesque ideal, advocated the use of a Claude glass saying, "they give the object of nature a soft, mellow tinge like the colouring of that Master".

Hugh Sykes Davies (1909 – 1984) observed their facing away from the object they wished to paint, commenting, "It is very typical of their attitude to Nature that such a position should be desirable.