[View of Paris]

With an entrancing three-dimensionality akin to that of a modern hologram, Vincent Chevalier’s view of the Seine, the Louvre, and the equestrian statue of Henri IV in the heart of Paris is a dazzling example of the earliest photographic process, the daguerreotype. First shown to the public in January 1839 by their inventor, the Romantic painter, showman, and entrepreneur Louis Daguerre, daguerreotypes are one-of-a-kind photographic images on highly polished silver-plated sheets of copper, sensitized with iodine and developed in mercury fumes.

Made little more than a year after Daguerre revealed the secret of his process, Chevalier’s View of Paris is an impressive example of the new medium’s capacity to record the world with astonishing accuracy, including details visible only with magnification. Like many early daguerreotypes, it is laterally reversed, left to right. This rare “whole plate” daguerreotype (the largest standard size) is the earliest photograph in the Museum’s collection.