Vue d'optique - Vue de la Porte Saint Martin

Original engraving. Optical view enhanced with watercolor, depicting a view of the Porte Saint Martin taken from the Boulevard Saint Denis.
Optical views, also called views, perspectives or "mondo nuovo," are engravings that were very fashionable between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They were intended to be observed through a set of multiple mirrors or by means of a Zograscope, an instrument consisting of a mirror and a lens. Optical views can be considered the precursors of three-dimensional images and stereoscopes which enjoyed great success from the 19th century onwards. Optical views appear to have emerged in the 1740s and were drawing room entertainments. The process was first developed in Paris, then London and finally in Germany, and focused on representing - in an idealized manner - the most famous panoramas and landscapes of the Orient and Occident.
Handsome plate with fresh colors.