Design for a ceiling with a trompe l'oeil sky filled with birds

Art Historical Context

This captivating 19th-century design by Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise and Eugène-Pierre Gourdet presents an enchanting vision for a ceiling that appears to open directly into the heavens. Rendered in pen and ink with delicate washes of watercolor and gouache, the composition features a convincing trompe l’oeil sky teeming with birds in flight. The technique, meaning “deceive the eye,” was especially prized in decorative schemes of the period, transforming enclosed interiors into airy, light-filled spaces that connected viewers with the natural world above. Created as a preparatory drawing rather than a finished mural, the work highlights the collaborative nature of 19th-century architectural decoration. Lachaise and Gourdet carefully planned every detail so that, once painted on an actual ceiling, the birds and clouds would seem to soar overhead. The combination of precise line work and translucent color allowed the artists to convey both structure and atmosphere, guiding craftsmen in the final execution. Today, this drawing offers modern viewers a rare glimpse into the creative process behind grand decorative projects. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of Drawings and Prints, it reminds us how artists of the era used illusion and imagination to bring the beauty of the outdoors into elegant interiors.

About the Artist

Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise|Eugène-Pierre Gourdet · 1897–1897

Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise, born Jules Lachaise on September 2, 1836, in Paris, emerged as a prominent French painter and draughtsman specializing in lavish interior decorations during the Second Empire and beyond. Little is known about his early life and formal training, though he married Berthe Gourdet in 1866, forging a close professional partnership with her brother, the decorator Eugène-Pi...