Understanding Trompe L’Oeil: 9 Examples of Trompe L’Oeil

Trompe l’oeil (French for “deceives the eye”) is a type of optical illusion used to trick the eye into thinking that a flat surface, like a wall, is actually three-dimensional. This technique is often achieved through photorealistic painting, and careful use of perspective. Trompe l’oeil can be found across many artistic fields, from fine art to theatre sets to interior design.

While the term became popular in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, examples of the technique date back to as early as 70 AD in Pompeii.

Artists have employed trompe l’oeil techniques in almost every chapter of art history. Here are a few well-known examples:

1. 1. Trompe l’Oeil by Louis-Léopold Boilly. The first use of the term “trompe l’oeil” was by the still-life painter Louis-Léopold Boilly in 1800. He used the term as the title for a detailed oil on canvas still-life painting that used photorealistic illusionism to make it look as if letters and tools were pinned to the canvas.
2. 2. Camera degli Sposi by Andrea Mantegna. In the fifteenth century, Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna frescoed the ceiling panel of the Ducal Palace in Mantua, Italy, using trompe l’oeil painting techniques. The illusionistic ceiling is painted to look like it has a giant skylight that opens up to a cloudy sky. Mantegna also painted courtiers and cherubs standing around the skylight as if they were on the palace’s ceiling, looking down at the viewers below.
3. 3. Trompe l’oeil dome by Andrea Pozzo. Baroque painter Andrea Pozzo was well-known for his illusionistic ceiling paintings. In 1703, Pozzo painted a realistic-looking dome on the ceiling of a Jesuit church in Vienna, making it appear as if the slightly curved space opened up into a large architectural dome on the roof of the chapel.
4. 4. After the Hunt series by William Harnett. William Harnett, a nineteenth-century Irish American painter, specialized in trompe l’oeil still lifes. He is most well-known for his series of paintings titled After the Hunt, in which viewers can see a series of what appear to be real objects—hunting tools like hats, guns, and freshly shot birds—hung on a peg as if the hunter has just returned home.
5. 5. The Reverse of a Framed Painting by Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts. The trompe l’oeil technique rose to prominence in seventeenth-century Flemish painting, showcased in the work of Cornelius Gijsbrechts. His most famous work, The Reverse of a Framed Painting, on first sight, appears to be nothing more than a framed portrait hung backward on the wall—but is actually an illusion painted onto a flat canvas.
6. 6. Mural for Fontainebleau Hotel by Richard Haas. Trompe l’oeil is a popular technique for large-scale wall painting in crowded city areas, not only because it can create the illusion of more space but also because it creates visual interest on otherwise blank or unattractive walls. In 1986, Richard Haas painted a trompe l’oeil mural in Miami that made a wall appear to be a giant archway to the ocean, with the Fontainebleau Hotel in the distance.
7. 7. Street paintings of Edgar Mueller. Edgar Mueller is a German artist who uses paint and chalk to create detailed 3D illusions on sidewalks. At a particular angle, his work uses the trompe l’oeil effect, fooling the eye into thinking you’re looking at anything from a crumbling glacier, to the jaws of an angry shark.
8. 8. Quetzacoatl by John Pugh. If you stand outside the Ecatepec de Morelos building in Mexico, you’ll see the looming head and neck of a colorful serpent coming out of the wall. The head isn’t a 3D sculpture, but a two-dimensional trompe l’oeil painting, complete with a faux shadow to create the illusion of depth to make it appear as if the creature can strike at any moment.
9. 9. New York triplex wall by Kelly Wearstler. Trompe l’oeil can also be used in interior design. Designer Kelly Wearstler used striped fabric and photoshop to create a photorealistic illusion on the top floor of a New York office building. The design makes it difficult for the eye to process the wall, opening up the space and giving the room a much more expansive feel.

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