Title: Vue de la Place des Victoires à Paris

Dimensions:  Sheet: 20-1/2"W x 12-1/8"H

                        Plate impression: 16"W x 11-1/2"H

The engraver: Unknown.

Description:

This auction is for a hand colored Vue d’Optique engraving depicting the Place des Victoires in Paris, at the center of which is the Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV.

I am showing two versions of the print.  The first is as it naturally appears.  The second is flipped horizontally, as it would appear in a viewer that presents a mirror image. 

A previous owner has penciled a note at the bottom right, “c. 1800.”  I believe this is incorrect, and that the image shows the current statue, installed in 1822.

The History:

Place des Victoires was previously home to the Louis XIV Victory Monument, which was a fairly elaborate affair that neither of us has time for right now.  Louis and his horse were torn down during the Revolution; other pieces – of which there were many – were relocated and repurposed.  A surprising number found their way, by various paths, to the Louvre, where they are now held.  Read about it on Wikipedia whenever the mood strikes you.  This view depicts the 1822 Equestrian Statue by Bosio that replaced the much larger monument in Place des Victoires.

The Technology:

Vues d'Optique, optical views, were designed to provide a perception of depth from a single two-dimensional engraving.  They were viewed through a zograscope, also known as an "optical diagonal machine," by which the user looked through a large magnifying lens into a mirror in which the image was reflected. Techniques such as exaggerated perspective, brighter foreground colors, magnification of the subject matter and tight framing of the field of vision served to disrupt the viewers perception of a two-dimensional image and helped to draw the viewer into the scene.  

It did not provide the kind of 3D experience afforded by the stereoscopic photography that replaced it in the mid 1800s, but from about 1750 until the advent of photography it was a popular home entertainment for the well-to-do.  It offered a greater sense of presence in views of foreign places and sights than one could experience in images on walls or in books. Titles are often seen in multiple languages under the image, with a single title mirrored in reverse above it so that one could read it in a viewer.