ANONYME. - Vuë de l'ancien Palais d'hiver de sa Majesté Imperiale et du Canal qui Joint la Moika avec la Neva, a St. Petersburg.

So-called optical print illustrating a perspective view of St. Petersburg, namely the ancient Winter Palace and the canal which joins the Moika to the Neva.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there were many popular speciality establishments in Paris, Augsburg and London which produced optical viewing devices and special engravings to be viewed through them. In the 18th century the optical print or vue optique came into existence, whose exaggerated converging lines were intended to produce the optical illusion of deep recession. The viewing devices for which these perspective prints were produced consisted of a lens and a mirror, this requiring the use of reversed or mirror-image pictures.