Victor Navlet (French 1819-1886) painted this gigantic overview of Paris in 1855 based on observations from a hot air balloon. The painting is about 12 feet high.
The details are so fine and carefully worked out that you can see windows on the individual houses.
It's at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
I'm looking forward to a video with you plein air painting from a hot air balloon now 😉
ReplyDeleteIt may be a dangerous time to be hanging from a balloon!
DeleteI wonder what was his method of observation from the balloon. I thought he was able to take some reference photos, but it seems that the first aerial photo from a hot air balloon was taken by Nadar in 1858, 3 years after Navlet completed his painting.
ReplyDelete