Ease

In the mid-1870s, Harnett said that he abandoned decorative metal engraving and “went wholly into painting.” Virtually untrained, he pursued a style known as trompe l’oeil (“fool the eye”), still-life arrangements of life-size objects rendered so realistically as to seem three dimensional. In Ease, which was commissioned by Massachusetts businessman James Abbe, he offers a glimpse into a Victorian gentleman’s library. Harnett selected items that would best convey his patron’s emotional, intellectual, and spiritual sides, reflecting Abbe’s personality in this interior setting. But he also includes playful deceptions, such as the lighted cigar lying upon the newspaper, an illusory detail intended to test the audiences’ gullibility.