ges.
Daguerre and his partner, Charles Marie Bouton, were proprietors of the Diorama at the time they met Niepce. The Diorama was a theater built for the display of huge 46 x 72-foot paintings of the most illusionistic kind. These were constructed with semitransparent theatrical gauze that was painted on both sides. when the lighting was changed from the front to the back by means of adjustments to the curtains on the skylights and floor-to-ceiling windows behind the stage, one image would seem to dissolve into another to the viewer. As noted, the production of these illusions required the frequent use of the camera obscura to assure proper perspective, which is what led Daguerre to experimenting with photography. He first learned of Niepce's work through the optician Charles Chevalier, who had supplied both men with lenses. Niepce visited the Diorama in 1827 and wrote of the experience to his son. He stated that he had met with Daguerre for three hours and that they had found much in common and much to discuss about photography. Niepce was impressed by the paintings in the Diorama and found the representations quite real to the smallest detail. He also said the objects seemed to be of natural size.
Niepce met Francis Bauer in London, a horticultural
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