Sculptuur van een centaur in de tuin van het Kasteel van Saint-Cloud c. 1850 - 1860

This stereoscopic image of a centaur in the garden of the Chateau de Saint-Cloud was produced by Furne Fils and H. Tournier. Stereoscopic images like this one were popular in the mid-19th century and represent an interesting collision of artistic representation, technology, and social class. Saint-Cloud, near Paris, was a favored palace of the French monarchy and aristocracy and the centaur evokes a classical world of mythological figures that would appeal to this elite class. Yet, as a photograph, its existence depended on recent innovations in science and technology that were transforming French society at the time, cutting across social classes. Stereoscopy added to the photograph a sense of three-dimensionality; this would have seemed an amazing novelty at the time. To see a centaur, a figure from the ancient world, brought to life in three dimensions through a photograph would have been an aesthetic experience unique to this moment in French history. By looking at photographs like this, reading accounts from the time, and researching the history of Saint-Cloud we can understand more fully its social and cultural context.