Albert Robida's Electric Submarine, La Vie Électrique, c.1890
A fish-eyed porthole peers from the conning tower of a sleek, cigar-shaped submarine as it glides ominously at the waterline — propeller churning at the stern, torpedo tubes at the bow. Robida frames this with a masterly split composition: above, a moonlit harbor scene dominated by a massive medieval fortress and an ironclad warship; below, the proto-modern submarine rests on a seabed strewn with debris, suggesting a world on the cusp of technological naval revolution.
Robida's dual-panel composition ambitiously envisions submarine warfare decades before it became reality, presenting a sleek cigar-shaped vessel prowling beneath a medieval fortress with eerie nocturnal menace. The vision is measured and technically imaginative rather than lurid, but its prophetic audacity is remarkable.
“Roba”
