Le Cinéma au siècle des Lumières

‘The spectators are seated in the living room. It is after dinner. Carmontelle sets up his large box on a table, with oil lamps behind it. He has prepared paintings that he has painted on transparent paper and pressed between two pieces of glass.’

This book offers a virtual tour through the transparent scrolls on which Carmontelle (1717-1806) painted village scenes of washerwomen and public dances, gardens and landscapes. Through the paintings, he recounts everyday life in the 18th century. This artist, portraitist, playwright, garden designer and organiser of extraordinary celebrations responded with this invention to the taste of his era for scientific innovation and optical spectacles. He turns his crank, revealing in the frame of his box the spectacle offered to the passengers of the carriage as it moves forward like a camera in action.