Visions of the year 2000 by 20th century French artist are half hilariously wrong, half weirdly prescient

France in the Year 2000 (XXI century) is a gorgeous series of fanciful, retro-futuristic illustrations, created by commercial artist Jean-Marc Côté between 1899 and 1910. According to The Public Domain, the artwork was originally printed in the form of paper cards, which were subsequently enclosed in cigarette boxes. Later they were produced as postcards.

Fifty of the illustrations (out of a purported 87) are catalogued over at Wikimedia Commons, but we've included a few of our favorites below. As is typical of this type of artwork, a number of the predictions are utterly and absurdly wrong, albeit very beautifully so. Click through to check out the collection in its entirety.

Click any image to enlarge

"Audio Journal"

"Correspondence Cinema"

[The Public Domain Review via kottke.org]