Vue du Château d'eau Prise du Boulevard St. Martin. "Vue d'optique" of Daguerre's Diorama., ca. 1834

Seventeen years before Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1759-1851) perfected the capture of images on a silver-coated copper plate (daguerreotypes), he created the Diorama with the help of the architectural painter Charles Marie Bouton (1781-1853). The barn-size building was elaborately constructed to present a life-size painting moving past spectators with constantly changing light effects that gave the illusion of changing times of days, or weather or seasons or other magically moving pictures.

Daguerre’s Diorama opened in Paris during the summer of 1822 and was an immediate success. Each 30 minute show presented two paintings, usually one outdoor scene and one religion interior. [Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University]
Unfortunately the Diorama burned down in 1839. The only surviving diorama of Daguerre can be found in Bry-sur-Marne near Paris.

This rare "vue d’optique" or optical view of the Diorama comes from the Metz studio of Adrien Dembour and his successor Nicolas Gengel. This print is meant to be view with a zograscope what increased the impression of depth in the picture. So that the title can also be read with the optical viewer, it is also mirrored above the picture. Fascinatingly, the word "Diorama" is not mirrored, making it difficult to read through the zograscope.

Hand colored engraving that depicts part of the pre-photography history.

image ca. 24,5 x 39,8 cm
mount 30,4 x 47,0 cm