Richard Smith Studios

Trompe L'oeil

French for "deceive the eye," Trompe L'oeil painting was found on the walls of Pompeian Italy in AD 70 and reached its zenith in the extraordinarily realistic Dutch Golden Age 17th century still lifes of Willem Heda and Jan de Heem. In the 19th century the American William Harnett again brought this genre to dazzling perfection. The art of trompe l'oeil is personified in the ancient Greek story of a contest between two artists, Zeuxis and Parrhasius. Zeuxis painted grapes so realistically that birds flew down to peck at them. It is always tittilating to be deceived by these images and the tradition continues to this day.  In our field we employ trompe l'oeil painting to depict moldings, architecural details, grotesques, doors, windows, objects, animals, anything to trick the eye and enliven a space.