The Eye of the Diorama To understand Hippolyte Victor Valentin Sebron, one must look past the traditional canvas and toward the light-driven spectacle of the nineteenth-century diorama. He was not merely a painter of landscapes or portraits; he was a technician of atmosphere. His early career was defined by a partnership with Louis Daguerre, where Sebron contributed to at least fourteen of the thirty large-scale paintings used in Daguerre’s theatrical dioramas. These works were massive, measuring sixty-five by forty feet, and relied on the clever use of transparencies to manipulate light. Th…