Trompe l'Oeil Still Life

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Artist: Jacobus Cornelis Meyer (Dutch)
Medium: Pen and ink, point of brush and black ink wash, watercolor and gouache
Size: Sheet: 37.3 x 27.4 cm (14 11/16 x 10 13/16 in.)
Culture: Netherlands
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Understood in the 1700s as a delightful, intellectual game, trompe l’oeil paintings and drawings such as this one were devised to “trick the eye” as the French term suggests. Toeing the line between realism and deception, the details of these compositions expose them as elaborate illusions. Here, Jacobus Cornelis Meyer’s image invites the viewer to uncover the trick. While the print depicted at center alludes to a well-known Dutch comedy revolving around hidden identity, the open curtain and fictional tears and creases in the papers encourage the viewer to physically reach out and break the illusion.