Fascinating bit of history. 8 London houses built specifically for artists. Huge loft windows facing north for the perfect light. It must of been exquisite painting in there.
Is there any scientific basis for North light being the best? Light has been a passion of mine since my theater days in college. At one time I considered a career as a theatrical lighting designer. A lack of real talent made me reconsider.
I think the point is that, in the Northern Hemisphere, light from the northern sky is fairly diffuse and constant throughout most of the day. From east, south and west you get the sunlight, sometimes even bright shafts of sunlight, coming from different directions at different times of day, lighting your canvas and your model unevenly, and differently a different times.
I was taught in mineralogy class that jewelers/gem dealers need to look at diamonds in north light, because by eliminating direct sunlight you have less variance in luminosity, allowing you to compare apples with apples, different gems can be compared with always the same base level light.
Here’s a page saying basically what they said. If you spend any time in differently-lit rooms of a house you can see the effect for yourself through the day.
The same phenomenon is used when you want to keep your house warm or cold with passive solar design – in the Northern Hemisphere, south-facing windows let a lot of sunlight in and heat up the house, whereas north-facing windows let only diffuse, reflected light in.
Thanks Reply. That link confirms the answer. Oddly enough the back of my house nearly faces due North (its turned a bit towards NW) . I’ve never really noticed the light being different. But, I’m not a painter either.
I know my front door gets direct sun. Even the very best spar urethane fails after about 5 years and I have to recoat the door. Otherwise the stain would fail next. I’ve had to touch up a few bare wood spots because I waited too long. That door should be pointing SW since the back faces a little bit NW.
And surely this is properly a GQ thread (that just happens to refer to art), rather than a CS one. The advantage of a northern light for an artist is not a matter of aesthetic taste, it is an entirely objective matter of an artist’s need for even, consistent lighting in order to get consistent results, and of the astronomical facts that make that possible.
Exactly. If you want consistant daylight but you never want direct sunlight thern north facing it is. No need for blinds, drapes, shades since the sun never has a chance to shine directly in. (however during a couple summer months you will get some direct sun at sunrise and sunset. More or less depending on your latitude.)
The room I do my painting in has windows that face south and west. If I really have to check a color, I have to do that in my bedroom (facing north and east), aside from early morning. This is not as much a problem as transitioning from incandescent to fluorescent, or worse: planning something on the computer and expecting the colors to match.