Vue d'optique - L'hôtel des ambassadeurs, à la Cour de Vienne, prise côté du jardin.

Original engraving. Optical view enhanced with watercolor, depicting a view of the ambassadors' hotel in Vienna, taken from the garden side.
Optical views, also called views, perspectives or "mondo nuovo", are engravings very much in vogue 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 Zograscope, 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 are salon entertainments. The process was first developed in Paris, then London and finally in Germany and was devoted to representing - in an idealized manner - the most famous panoramas and landscapes of East and West.
Fine impression with very fresh colors.