Trompe-l'œil from 1520 to the present day

The term trompe-l'œil was first used by Louis Léopold Boilly (1761-1845) as a caption to a work exhibited at the Salon of 1800. The term was adopted thirty-five years later by the Académie française. Although the term was coined in the 19th century, the origins of trompe-l'œil can be traced back to a much earlier account by Pliny the Elder (c.23-79 AD), who relates in his Natural History how the painter Zeuxis (464-398 BC), in a competition with the painter Parrhasius, depicted grapes so perfectly that birds flew around them. Over the centuries, trompe-l'œil has evolved through a variety of mediums, revealing itself to be plural. It plays with the viewer's gaze, winking at the traps set by our own perceptions. While certain themes of trompe-l'œil are well known - such as vanitas, hunting trophies, letter carriers and grisailles - other aspects will be explored in this exhibition, such as decorative variations (furniture, earthenware, etc.) and the political significance of this pictorial genre from the revolutionary era to modern and contemporary versions.