John Haberle: Master of Illusion
by: Sill, Gertrude Grace

Softcover. Springfield, Mass., Museum of Fine Arts, 1st, 1985, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 72 pages, b&w illustrations, 8 color plates. Edge wear, small tears to wrappers and spine. Else a clean, tight copy. Of the three great nineteenth-century American trompe l'oeil artists--William Michael Harnett (1848-1892), John Frederick Peto (1854-1907), and John Haberle (1856-1933)--the least well known is Haberle. Haberle approached painting with an informed and sophisticated connoisseurship. A highly original artist, he often alluded to complicated, ingenious, and entertaining aspects of contemporary society. The rarity of his work only adds to its allure.