Carmontelle diorama cartonnage three compartment letter holder French pink marble
W:10 5/8 H:7 5/8 D:5 7/8
Louis Carmontelle (1717-1806) painted portraits, designed sets and gardens, wrote stories, and invented a precursor to film. His transparencies were landscapes painted on long bands of paper and wound on two rollers to create a slowly moving picture with narration provided by the presenter. Reproduced here is a section of a transparency depicting the pavilions alongside the canals of the Seine one hour west of Paris. The canals disappeared with later improvements on the river channel.
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