Introduction

I

We enjoy being deceived as long as we remain aware of the deception. ernst h. gombrich Meditationen über ein Steckenpferd, 1978

Within the panorama of the protean genre of trompe l’oeil, two as yet unrecognized but noteworthy works deserve a place. They were commissioned around the middle of the last century by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), and by his wife Rachel Lambert Mellon (1910–2014), known to everyone as Bunny—two exceptional figures who, through their example, exerted a great influence on collecting and the arts around the world. It appears that parallel decisions were taken within a relatively short space of time to decorate two favorite corners of the couple’s estate at Oak Spring—a cabinet in the living room and the vestibule of Bunny’s recently completed formal greenhouse—with paintings en trompe-l’oeil. Given the divergent tastes and cultural predilections of Paul and Bunny, two different artists were chosen for the commissions. For the first project, Paul, a keen Anglophile, fixed on the English artist Martin Battersby (1914–1982), a well-known painter, decorator, and author of various books, including an important history of the trompe l’oeil. For the second, Bunny, with her profound love of French culture, selected Fernand Renard (1912–ca. 1980), a French artist specializing in the genre of the trompe l’oeil. Bound together by their love of art and their shared ideals and objectives, a lighthearted intellectual complicity and close collaboration, both academic and artistic, sprang up between the couple in the course of these two creative endeavors. Thus, in serendipitous fashion, two “visual biographies” came into being. When read closely, they shed light on the character, interests, and passions of two singular individuals who left a decisive mark on the history of contemporary culture.

This book gives a brief history of trompe l’oeil painting and the centrality of this distinctive genre to Renaissance portrayals of the natural world, before considering the creation of the two trompe l’oeil paintings that grace the Mellons’ home.

Italian cabinet in trompe l’oeil with marbled shelves and books, a nineteenth-century scenery prop, oil on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.