Carmontelle′s Landscape Transparencies – Cinema of the Enlightenment

Louis de Carmontelle was an eighteenth-century French draftsman, painter, and garden designer. In 1783, he began painting a series of panoramas on translucent paper that, when cranked through a backlit viewing box gave viewers the experience of journeying through beautiful landscapes.Drawing from both museum and private collections, Carmontelle's "Landscape Transparencies", re-creates the original viewing experience by leading the reader through a series of full-colour scenes and two stunning panoramic gatefolds, and in the process offers a lively analysis of eighteenth-century life and a rare glimpse into the very beginnings of the moving image.