Trompe l'oeil with Palettes and Miniature

Attributed to Jean François de Le Motte French

Not on view

Playfully alluding to the artist’s own role as an illusionist is a recurrent theme of trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) paintings. On two palettes Le Motte has represented blotches of paint with paint, while he also uses the medium to represent a scene of two men huddling together, once as a painting within his painting, and again as an etching with mock signature lines. Trompe l’oeil subjects enjoyed popularity throughout eighteenth- and ninteenth-century Europe. Attributions for this painting have varied, but its similarity to signed and dated paintings in Dijon and Strasbourg suggest Le Motte’s authorship.

Trompe l'oeil with Palettes and Miniature, Attributed to Jean François de Le Motte (French, born before 1635–died in or after 1685), Oil on canvas

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