# The Camera Obscura, in The Rotunda

Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo painted this in 1764, aged 45. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Our note:

> A young woman and two children lean into an oval stone window, absorbed in a wooden box with a brass-lined lens jutting from its side. The box is a camera obscura, an optical device that projects an image of whatever lies in front of it, and here it serves as a fashionable household amusement.

[Read the full label](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-camera-obscura-nga-32578#about-work)

## The work

- Date: 1764
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: overall: 88.6 x 88.5 cm (34 7/8 x 34 13/16 in.) framed: 120.7 x 114.9 x 12.7 cm (47 1/2 x 45 1/4 x 5 in.)
- Type: Painting
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945.10.1
- Licence: CC0 1.0

## The artist

[Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/charles-amedee-philippe-van-loo), French, 1719–1795

Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo belonged to a celebrated family of painters: he was the son of Jean-Baptiste van Loo and nephew of Carle van Loo.

2 works in the collection.

## Walk on

- [Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo's contemporaries](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/artist/contemporaries-of-charles-amedee-philippe-van-loo?hang=752) (8 works)
- [More Neoclassicism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/style/neoclassicism?hang=752) (109 works)
- [18th-century France](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/era/18-france?hang=752) (75 works)

## Get it

- [Print this work](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-camera-obscura-nga-32578#print)
- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1463.jpg?dl=1
- [The work's page](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-camera-obscura-nga-32578)