Style Imitating Art | Eise Eisinga Planetarium by Eise Eisinga

This is the final outfit inspired by art for 2024. I will post the SIA Gallery of Style on Wednesday and then we are taking a little holiday break. We will return on January 6, 2025, with Salazar’s next choice of artwork. I am looking forward to another year of intriguing art and fabulous outfits!

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was my turn to choose the final art inspiration for the year. I had something completely different in mind when I had my monthly Zoom call with my dear friend Nancy, who gave me an even better idea. Nancy lives in the Netherlands and she was telling me about her recent visit to the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker, Friesland, Netherlands. I was so fascinated by the history and the photos of this planetarium that I decided it would make the perfect inspiration piece for this style series.

The Artwork

Eise Eisinga Planetarium by Eise Eisinga

*Photo Credit

About the Artist: Eise Eisinga

Eise Jeltes Eisinga was born on February 21, 1744, in Dronryp of the Dutch Republic. His father was Jelte Eises, a wool carder from Easterlittens, and his mother was Hitje Steffens from Winsum. Although Eise was intellectually gifted as a child, he was not permitted to attend school. Despite his lack of formal education, Eise wrote two books when he was just 17 years old, one on mathematics and one on the principles of astronomy. He continued writing special subject books in the field of astronomy and eventually became a wool carder, like his father, in Franeker, Netherlands. Eisinga had mastered the fields of mathematics and astronomy mostly through self education but he did also study these subjects at the University of Franeker.

At the age of 24, Eise married Pietje Jacobs and the couple had one daughter and two sons together. Trijntje was born in April 1773 and died the same month; Jelte was born on May 29, 1774; and Jacobus was born on March 17, 1784. After a political crisis arose in 1787, Eisinga relocated to Germany but eventually settled in Visvliet in the Dutch province of Groningen where he worked as a wool carder. Because he was banned from Friesland for five years, he remained in Visvliet just across the border until 1795 when he returned to Franeker.

On May 27, 1792, Eisinga’s wife died and he subsequently married Trijntje Eelkes Sikkema with whom he had three more children, one son and two daughters, Eelke born on October 14, 1793, Hittje born on February 16, 1796, and Minke born on June 4, 1798.

Eise Eisinga remained a wool carder for his entire life while operating his planetarium with the help of public support. He was an occasional guest lecturer at the University of Franeker until Napoleon ordered it closed in 1811. Eisinga died at the age of 84 on August 27, 1828, in Franeker.

About the Art: The Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium

Built between 1774 and 1781 by amateur Dutch astronomer Eise Jeltes Eisinga, the Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium is the oldest working planetarium in the world. It was built in response to public panic about a possible armageddon triggered by the alignment of the moon with the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter on May 8, 1774. It was predicted that the planets and the moon would collide resulting in earth being pushed out of orbit and burned up by the sun. As the people of Friesland began to panic in response to this astronomical prediction, Eisinga decided to build a planetarium in his living room to prove there was no need for panic because the moon and the planets were not actually going to collide.

Expecting to complete his orrery in six months time, it ultimately took Eisinga over seven years to finish it. Uranus was discovered during the same year the planetarium was completed but there was no room on Eisinga’s ceiling to include it.

The mechanical planetarium was built directly into the timber roof of the living room ceiling in Eisinga’s historic Franeker canal front home. The orrery is painted in royal blue glimmer and outlined in shiny gold paint. The Sun is at the center with the Earth represented by a golden orb dangling on a wire. Eisinga also depicted the full zodiac in his working model of the Solar System. Eisinga’s planetarium is very exact in its clockwork-like mechanics, but it is not perfect. For example, the pendulum is made of a single type of metal which leaves it susceptible to temperature fluctuations thereby effecting its accuracy.

The face of the model looks down into what was Eisinga’s living room with most of the mechanical apparatus housed in the space above the ceiling. It is driven by a pendulum clock with nine weights which allows the planets to move automatically around the model in real time. Ten thousand handmade nails were used to create the gears that operate the planetarium.

On June 30, 1818, King William I of the Netherlands visited the planetarium and was so impressed with it that he purchased it for the Dutch state. In 1859, the Dutch state donated the planetarium to the city of Franeker where it currently operates as a museum open to the public.

The museum consists of the planetarium room, a screening room, and special exhibits on modern astronomy. There are also permanent displays of Eisinga’s wool combing establishments as well as historical astronomical instruments including Georgian telescopes, 18th century octants, a tellurian, and an educational model of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. The museum also houses a Planetarium Café and Brasserie De Stadstuin which are located in the former Van Balen coffee-roasting house.

On May 5, 1994, the Dutch post office issued an 80 cent stamp to celebrate Eise Eisinga’s 250th birthday. Eisinga was rewarded with honorary citizenship of Franeker and the street of his home and planetarium was renamed “Eise Eisingastraat”. The planetarium was given permission to use the “Royal” title in 2006. On December 12, 2011, Eisinga’s orrery was nominated by the Dutch government for UNESCOWorld Heritage status which it received in September 2023. In 2018, the planetarium celebrated the 250th anniversary of Eisinga’s move to Franeker in 1768. The Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium has been included in the list of top 100 Dutch heritage sites since 1990.

References/Resources:

• Eise Eisinga Planetarium
• Photos by © Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium
• Wikipedia: Eise Eisinga Planetarium
• Wikipedia: Eise Eisinga

About My Outfit

When I was out photographing today’s Thrifty Six outfit for our Wintergreen theme, I was wearing my Highlander plaid coat. When I opened my phone while wearing the coat, my wallpaper was set to an image of the planetarium and it perfectly matched the colors of my plaid coat. So I actually started this outfit with the outerwear.

However, it is way too cold outside to just wear a coat, so I needed to build the rest of my outfit around the planetarium theme. I started with a black dress with silver stars printed on the skirt. The dress is sleeveless so I layered a fitted black turtleneck underneath for extra warmth. To represent all the gold in the orrery, I added brown accessories including my tan floral cowgirl boots, my brown straw fedora, and my brown and gold embossed belt. I topped the dress with a thrifted duster cardigan in a light teal\turquoise color that is very close to the blue color that dominates the planetarium. My tights are sparkly to represent the stars and I wore celestial jewelry including a moon and star necklace and dangly moon earrings.

This is not an outfit combination I would have ever created if not for the inspiration of the artwork. I would have never paired brown and tan accessories with a black and silver dress, but I found it much more pleasing than I expected. And the bright turquoise sweater on top seems to bring it all to life, doesn’t it? I am very pleased with my results for this challenge!

If you want to play along and be featured with your art inspired outfit in my gallery post on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, be sure to submit your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, December 17, 2024. In the meantime, be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of this painting as well as Marsha’s take on it. 

Happy styling, my friends!

Shelbee

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