GRÉSELY, Gabriel-Gaspard - b. 1712 L'Isle-sur-le-Doubs, d. 1756 Besançon - WGA

GRÉSELY, Gabriel-Gaspard

(b. 1712 L'Isle-sur-le-Doubs, d. 1756 Besançon)

French painter. He was a well-known genre and trompe l’oeil painter who taught himself. After arriving in Paris to develop his technique, he was unpleasantly surprised to see one of his paintings, Old Woman Making Lace, on sale under the name of another painter. Grésely set the record straight and the incident made his reputation and he was subsequently inundated with commissions. Unfortunately, ill health forced him to leave Paris, where he had a very successful career, to return home to the provinces.

Trompe l'Oeil Still-Life
Trompe l'Oeil Still-Life by

Trompe l'Oeil Still-Life

The trompe l’oeil tradition was a very popular form of still life painting during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly in the Netherlands, Northern Italy and France. Weapons, musical instruments, tools and other possessions hanging on walls, often suspended from nails or hooks, developed into a favourite and enduring trompe l’oeil theme throughout Northern Europe. It is this theme which we see in the present painting which is a trompe l’oeil still-life of a print (after David Teniers), a letter, a pamphlet, a playing card, a quill pen, scissors and a key, all tacked to a wooden board.

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