Vue d'optique -Vue de la colonnade du Louvre

Original engraving. Optical view heightened in watercolour, depicting a view of the Louvre colonnade. Optical views, also called views, perspectives or "mondo nuovo", are engravings very fashionable between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. They were intended to be observed through a set of several mirrors or by means of a Zegrascope, an instrument consisting of a mirror and a lens. Optical views can be considered as the precursors of three-dimensional images and stereoscopes which enjoyed great success from the 19th century onwards. Optical views seem to appear in the 1740s and were salon entertainments. The process was first developed in Paris, then London and finally in Germany and was dedicated to representing - in an idealized manner - the most famous panoramas and landscapes of East and West.
A very slight foxing at the top of the plate, otherwise fine impression with very fresh colours.