An illusionistic drawing of sheets of printed papers haphazardly piled on a speckled green surface. The papers look convincingly three dimensional but are in fact renderings on a two-dimensional surface.

Willem Robart

Trompe l’Oeil with Printed Matter

Maker

Willem Robart (Dutch, active 1770s)

Title

Trompe l’Oeil with Printed Matter

Year

1770s

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

ink wash, gouache, watercolor

Dimensions

Sheet: 39.1 x 36 cm (15 3/8 x 14 3/16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Barnet Fain

Object Number

2001.93.2

Type

Publications

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer
Four Hundred Years of Drawing from the RISD Museum
Mar 12, 2022 – Sep 04, 2022

Label copy

A few sheets of paper lie scattered on a marble tabletop. While seemingly casual, the sheets were very deliberately chosen: each stands in for a different type of printed object. Willem Robart’s portraits of these pages are so accurate that the specific editions of the publications they came from can be identified. His astonishing meticulousness in reproducing images belongs to the tradition of trompe l’oeil (trick the eye). A competition between media underlies this genre, for by approaching the qualities of print so faithfully, the artist reasserts his belief in the versatility of drawing.

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Willem Robart (Dutch, active 1770s)
Trompe l’Oeil with Printed Matter, 1770s
Pen and ink, brush and wash, watercolor, opaque watercolor, and chalk on laid paper
Sheet: 39.1 x 36 cm (15 3/8 x 14 3/16 inches)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Barnet Fain 2001.93.2

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