Les Diableries
Anon, “Satan Malade,” from Les Diableries, c. 1861,
hand-tinted stereocard (detail)
Certainly the most remarkable body of work made for stereo viewing, however, wasLes Diableries, a suite of 72 cards published anonymously in Paris, 1861. Produced during the rise of the Second Empire, Les Diableries‘s sculptural visions of satanic torture and merriment would have meant swift imprisonment for the artists under Napoleon III’s authoritarian rule.