PURPOSE: To provide a high-grade display device which eliminates the discontinuous dotty or grid-like dark parts of a liquid crystal color display device and greatly lessens reflection of peripheral light.

CONSTITUTION: This image display device of a direct viewing type has a color liquid crystal display panel 1 which has an active matrix structure attaching switching elements at respective pixel electrodes and has two-dimensionally arranged many pixels. A plate-shaped optical element 4 accompanied with reflection of light is arranged on the observer side which is the display route of the image display part of the liquid crystal panel 1. This optical element 4 has microconvex lenses or projecting lenses having an isosceles triangular shape on at least one surface thereof. The lens pitch of the optical element 4 is preferably set equal to the row pitch and/or column pitch of the pixels or twice this pitch.