The Old Violin

Painted in 1886, The Old Violin is a work by William Harnett, now in the collection of National Gallery of Art, that reflects the artistic concerns of the late 19th century — an era of fundamental transformation in both the methods and purposes of European and American painting. William Harnett was the leading American practitioner of trompe l'oeil — 'fool the eye' — still life painting, a genre that challenged viewers to question where painted illusion ended and physical reality began. His compositions of musical instruments, old books, meerschaum pipes, and currency were so realistic that the U.S.

Harnett executed his trompe l'oeil still lifes with painstaking technical precision, building up glazed layers of oil paint to render the textures of wood, metal, leather, and paper with deceptive accuracy.