John Haberle, The Challenge, c. 1890, oil on canvas, 21.875 x 15.2", Thomas Colville Fine Art

John Haberle, Torn in Transit, 1890-95, oil on canvas, 13.4375 x 17", Collection of the Brandywine River Museum

John Haberle: American Master of Illusion
Dec. 11, 2009 - Mar. 14, 2010
Opening Reception
5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009

Combining a masterful technique with sly, witty historical and personal reference to American life from 1870 to 1910, today John Haberle is considered one of the most accomplished American trompe l’oeil painters.

Alluding to the moral and political issues of the time in the NBMAA’s Time and Eternity, Haberle juxtaposes objects of the temporal world, such as a pocket watch, playing cards and rosary beads with a newspaper clipping that references Robert G. Ingersoll, a lecturer who was tried for blasphemy because of his unorthodox views on slavery and the Bible. The slight but ingenious details make each of Haberle’s paintings exceedingly complex.

Haberle’s precise, trompe l’oeil paintings were well recognized about a decade during his lifetime. Afterward, he faded into obscurity but was rediscovered in 1949 by American scholar Alfred Frankenstein.

Along with Time and Eternity and the museum's own Haberle works, the NBMAA exhibition includes approximately 20 paintings and drawings on loan from museums from across the country.

Supplementing the exhibit is a catalog created by art historian and curator Gertrude Grace Sill entitled John Haberle: American Master of Illusion. Based primarily on new research gathered by Sill through forgotten Haberle archives and interviews with Haberle descendants, both the exhibition and catalog will be the first complete study devoted to Haberle. The exhibition will travel to Chadds Ford, PA, and Portland, ME.

The exhibition and catalog are presented with the support of Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, The David T. Langrock Foundation, The Henry Luce Foundation and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.