Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
February 1775
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 10v
Notes:
Although this item was on his list of "Paintings and Drawings done," Du Simitière evidently only colored an existing engraving of an anamorphic depiction of a horse, which to be seen in its proper perspective must be viewed at an oblique angle with the eye at the same level as the paper, or through the use of a device such as a zograscope. The engraving bears a close resemblance to an anamorphic horse in the lower right corner of a British cartoon satirizing the South Sea Bubble of 1720, also reproduced here. (The entire print can be viewed by clicking on the link in the caption.) The third illustration shows what the horse would look like after the image had been rectified. For a thorough discussion of various optical displays in early museums, see Wendy Bellion, Citizen Spectator: Art, Illusion, and Visual Perception in Early National America (Chapel Hill, 2011), chap. 1 (Theaters of Visuality).
