Instruction

Trompe l’oeil is French for “deceive the eye.” It names paintings designed, for a moment, to be mistaken for real objects. The approved record surveys the form from the Renaissance through Photorealism. This lesson begins even earlier, with a story, and then studies the strategies illusionists share.

The story of the curtain. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder, in Book 35 of his Natural History (first century CE), tells of a contest between two Greek painters. Zeuxis painted grapes so convincingly that birds flew down to peck at them. His rival Parrhasius then showed a painting covered, apparently, by a curtain. Zeuxis asked for the curtain to be drawn aside, and discovered it was painted. Pliny reports that Zeuxis conceded: he had deceived birds, but Parrhasius had deceived an artist. Whether the contest happened we cannot know, but the story became a touchstone for later painters.

A painted curtain in 1658. Look at Trompe-l’Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain (1658, Art Institute of Chicago) by Adriaen van der Spelt, who painted the flowers, and Frans van Mieris, who painted the curtain. A blue curtain on a rod appears to hang in front of the painting, partly drawn back to reveal the flowers. Dutch collectors of the period sometimes protected paintings with real curtains, so the painted one plays a joke on the viewer and, it seems, on Pliny’s story.

American trompe l’oeil. In the late nineteenth century William Michael Harnett (1848-1892), born in Ireland and raised in Philadelphia, became famous for still lifes that fool the eye. Compare Memento Mori, “To This Favor” (1879, Cleveland Museum of Art), Still Life—Violin and Music (1888, The Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Just Dessert (1891, Art Institute of Chicago). John Frederick Peto (1854-1907), also from Philadelphia, painted worn, everyday objects in works such as Lights of Other Days (1906, Art Institute of Chicago).

Five strategies. As you look, find these:

1. Shallow space. Illusion is most convincing when objects sit close to the picture surface, against a wall, a door or a tabletop edge, so the eye has no deep space to measure.
2. Life size. Objects painted at their real size are easier to mistake for real.
3. Cast shadows. A crisp shadow falling from an object onto the surface behind it is the strongest single cue that the object stands in front of that surface.
4. Flat or nearly flat objects. Letters, cards, paper money, pinned notes and hanging objects are easier to fake than deep three-dimensional ones, because they barely change as you move.
5. Surface detail. Wood grain, peeling paper, a nail head, a torn corner: small, specific textures convince the eye up close.

Photorealism. From the late 1960s, painters in the United States such as Richard Estes and Audrey Flack made paintings from photographs with photographic precision: shop windows, reflections, city streets and still lifes. Their work is under copyright, so we discuss it by description. Photorealism differs from trompe l’oeil: it does not usually try to make you mistake the painting for the object. It makes you notice how a camera sees, with its reflections, even focus and cropping, and it raises the question this unit will argue about: is precise imitation enough?

Your project. The record’s project, and yours, is a trompe l’oeil work in colored pencil from your own photograph. As you look, collect ideas for a shallow arrangement of flat objects that mean something to you.

Formative check

Work through these before moving on. They are not graded — they tell you, and your teacher, whether the standard below has landed yet.