Deceiving the Viewer: A Drawing of a Tabletop from a Collector’s Study
A paper-laden tablescape or an expertly executed visual trick? Examine this unusual drawing, hidden with clues, to decide for yourself.
Fool-the-eye tabletop with prints and book (1750/1800) by Maurice Roger and After: Albrecht DürerMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston
Created around 1750 by the French artist Maurice Roger, this work imitates a tabletop and various printed materials—including Renaissance prints and texts—that one would have found in an 18th-century collector’s study.
Using pen and ink, and brush with opaque watercolor, Roger’s optical illusion renders fictive prints, three texts, and a creased newspaper. This realistic type of work is referred to as trompe-l’oeil, French for “trick-the-eye”.
To create this highly illusionistic drawing on paper, Roger selectively applied varnish to emulate a real wood-veneer panel.
Here Roger depicts a drawing after a scene by Raphael for the Vatican Loggia, which represents Noah building the Ark as detailed in the Hebrew Bible.
No 18th-century collector’s study would have been complete without a library holding books in several languages. For this reason, Roger meticulously replicated pages with text written in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek.
This Latin text is the beginning of the Gospel of John, likely from a French edition of the Bible, as suggested by the margins and the typeface. In English the first line is “In the beginning was the Word.”
This page is a Hebrew translation of the opening of the Gospel of Matthew. Translating the New Testament into Hebrew was common from the 16th through the 19th centuries. The translation of a familiar text was a way for Christians to study Hebrew.
Roger very realistically replicated the first page of the 1640 edition of the Greek romance Leucippe and Clitophon, written in the second century by Achilles Tatius. It narrates the title characters' love story and all the difficulties they overcame before being happily united.
The Gazette de Cologne, dated October 23, 1750, brings the viewer to the contemporary world of the collector, who has left the front page of the French-language newspaper on the table. Roger depicts creases that show it was folded in four parts to suggest its use.
Lastly, Roger rendered a group of woodcuts made by the German printmaker Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). Eighteenth-century collectors highly regarded Dürer’s prints and extensively collected them, and viewers of the time would have easily identified them.
The Man of Sorrows Mocked by a Soldier was designed as the frontispiece to Dürer’s Great Passion series. Made of 11 woodcuts in total, it represents episodes of Christ’s final moments before his death. Originally conceived as a devotional work, it soon became a collector’s item.
Compare Roger’s drawing with Dürer’s woodcut!
Fool-the-eye tabletop with prints and book (1750/1800) by Maurice Roger and After: Albrecht DürerMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston
Here Roger drew another woodcut by Dürer: the biblical story of the beheading of John the Baptist. Following Dürer, he included the date the print was made (1510) and Dürer’s famous monogram.
Can you spot the date and the monogram in Dürer’s print?
Fool-the-eye tabletop with prints and book (1750/1800) by Maurice Roger and After: Albrecht DürerMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston
Roger rendered another woodcut by Dürer, relating to the story of John the Baptist. The print shows King Herod receiving John’s head. Roger replicated in drawing all the details of Dürer’s original, including the shadows cast by the figures and the details of the cutlery.
He not only copied the designs of Dürer’s prints, but also imitated the graphic details and lines used by the artist for his woodcuts. This was necessary to deceive the expert eyes of collectors, and it shows the artist’s virtuosity in replicating printing techniques.
Despite remaining largely faithful to Dürer’s prints, Roger inserted a few differences, inviting the viewer to spot them. For instance, Roger did not include the scabbard hanging from the belt of the man holding John the Baptist’s head.
Fool-the-eye tabletop with prints and book (1750/1800) by Maurice Roger and After: Albrecht DürerMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston
Three prints are also drawn in reverse. All these differences would have served as clues for the viewers, hinting that they were not looking at the original Dürer woodcuts.
Finally, Roger challenged the viewer to recognize this Dürer print through a small detail. Knowledgeable collectors would have identified it asThe Doubting Thomas, from the Small Passion series made of 36 woodcuts. For this print, Roger kept the same orientation as the original.
Playing with the story of St. Thomas, who doubted Christ’s Resurrection and touched his wound to be convinced, Roger provocatively invites viewers to touch and pick up his drawn prints, revealing his artistic deception.
Fool-the-eye tabletop with prints and book (1750/1800) by Maurice Roger and After: Albrecht DürerMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston
His way of treating Dürer’s prints by meticulously replicating the woodcuts lines, the creased newsprint, and written texts demonstrate the deceptive art of drawing, while stressing the complex dialogue between the media within collecting and artistic practices.
© 2025 J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles
To cite this exhibition, please use: "Deceiving the Viewer: A Drawing of a Tabletop from a Collector’s Study" published online in 2025 via Google Arts & Culture, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
This Google Arts & Culture story was created by Getty Graduate Interns Flavia Barbarini, with the contribution of Reed O’Mara (text) and Lucia Palmerini (design).
For additional resources:
Exhibition Website: Lines of Connection: Drawing and Printmaking
Exhibition Catalog: Edina Adam and Jamie Gabbarelli. Lines of Connection: Drawing and Printmaking, 1400-1850. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2025.
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