Een blik in het theater van Besançon 1804

This print, made by Claude Nicolas Ledoux, presents a phantasmagorical eye, precisely rendered in graphite. It is a visionary work on paper, but of course the true vision here is architectural. Look closely, and you'll see a building – Ledoux's theater of Besançon – reflected in the eye's iris. It's an unsettling image, not only because of the monumental scale given to the eye, but also because it seems to ask: what does it mean to *see* architecture? Ledoux was one of the most radical theorists of his day, imagining entire cities conceived as total works of art. This print reflects that ambition. Consider the labor involved in producing such a detailed image, requiring countless hours of patient mark-making. Yet the effect is not one of plodding effort, but of effortless imagination. The material qualities of the print – its scale, its monochrome palette – all contribute to its dreamlike atmosphere. This prompts us to question the relationship between architectural vision and the built reality around us.