Vue du Chateau et d'une Partie de la Ville de Versailles (c. 1770–1800): Art, History and Details

Vue du Chateau et d'une Partie de la Ville de Versailles (c. 1770–1800) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Balthasar Friedrich Leizelt (German, 1710–1820); Jacques Rigaud (French, 1681–1754).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This perspective view (often called a vue d’optique,or optical view) is an example of a popular art and entertainment format during the second half of the 1700s in Europe. The hand-colored etching and engraving was made to be viewed with a special viewing device consisting of a convex lens and a mirror, so that scene appeared to be a three-dimensional image. Here, the viewer can enjoy a perspective view of the French Palace of Versailles. Such views—which were only made for a short time and largely disappeared with the advent of photography—appealed to both elite audiences, who viewed collections of images with their own viewing devices in private drawing rooms, and popular audiences, for whom they were street entertainment for a minimal fee.

Object facts

• Title: Vue du Chateau et d'une Partie de la Ville de Versailles
• Date: c. 1770–1800
• Creator attribution: Balthasar Friedrich Leizelt (German, 1710–1820); Jacques Rigaud (French, 1681–1754)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching and engraving, hand colored
• Dimensions: Sheet: 31.9 x 42.5 cm (12 9/16 x 16 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Prints
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2020.162

A detail from the museum

The text at the top of this print is printed in reverse so that it would be legible when looking through a special viewing device consisting of a convex lens and a mirror.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.