Study of a reclining female nude arranged for a stereoscope, the model resting her head on her hand beside a boldly striped studio textile, a gauze wrap drawn across the hips. Two nearly identical views present the slight left and right perspectives required for binocular depth, and careful hand coloring warms the flesh tones and enriches the patterned drapery. Posing recalls the academic atelier, with a calm three-quarter turn of the torso and an inward gaze that sustains the picture’s contemplative mood.

Stereoscopic daguerreotypes began circulating widely in the early to mid 1850s after the adoption of Sir David Brewster’s lenticular stereoscope, and Paris studios quickly recognized their appeal. Nude studies, known in the period as académies, were commissioned by painters and sculptors as references and were also collected privately. Photographers such as Auguste Belloc and makers allied with Duboscq, Ferrier, and other optical houses produced refined examples that joined technical virtuosity with an art-school subject. The present composition, with its theatrical cloth and cool studio sky, sits squarely within that French tradition.

Two daguerreotype images are mounted as a stereo pair for viewing in a Brewster-type instrument. When seen in three dimensions the striped fabric arcs forward and the model’s shoulder and forearm gain sculptural presence, a reminder of how stereoscopy extended the daguerreotype’s famed clarity. Likely French, circa 1855 to 1858, and an exceptional example of the genre that combines rarity, artistic intention, and the sensuous depth unique to stereo plates.