The concept of trompe-l'oeil ("trick the eye") is a well-established one, popular during the Renaissance, which you can bet also means it had precedent in Ancient Greece. But it underwent another huge revival in the nineteenth century. This time out the objects seemed to be presented for their own sake. The idea of painting as straightforward narrative was breaking down.
The painting above is "Time and Eternity" by American artist John Haberle. Who certainly had a way of painting realistic wood grains. It almost seems to invent surrealist anti-narrative.
2 comments:
Well, that's one that certainly tromped my l'oiel - very very clever. Wikipedia tells me the Secret Service asked him to stop painting paper money but he never did. Having read a bit further I see his most famous painting of this type was the one called 'A Bachelor's Drawer' but it's 'Time and Eternity' you chose to show. It is a quiet beauty.
I found an artist's blog called Art Now and Then where he wrote about Haberle's work, a lot more informative and conversational than the wiki article. I haven't seen much of Harnett and Peto's work but it looks to me like Haberle was unique. The last painting in Jim Lane's post called 'Grandma's Hearthstone' is amazingly huge for a trompe l'oiel at 8 feet tall by 5.6 feet wide. A newspaper review at the time said "It fooled the cat who went to sleep by the fire".
It came from the drawer.. Good one.
I found it pretty cunning as well. Even as realistic as he could paint, given the format of his works, I doubt very much that his paintings of money were ever mistaken for the real thing. Just goes to show that feds have always been paranoid. I like "A Bachelor's Drawer" but wanted to focus on a not-quite-so-well-known picture. Interesting that the Met speculates that ABD is autobiographical.
I like Jim Lane's blog, which he unfortunately seems to have stopped updating at some point. He mentions that two things that painters have to deal with over time are failing eyesight and rheumatism. Because of these Haberle eventually stopped doing the trompe l'oeil thing. Was still a good artist, but not the kind he'd been before. Cat by the hearth. That's a nice touch. Speaking of cats I really like the picture "Misunderstanding", with its flummoxed kitty at the bird cages.
Thanks. Had to think about headers for a while.
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