"The Challenge."

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Imagine, if you will, a carny standing out in front of the New Britain Museum of American Art:

"Step right up, ladies and gents. We've got stuff in here by the Great Haberle, a wizard outta New Haven. This guy could really fool the eye. ... If you'll pardon my French, this boy could really trompe the l'oeil. ... You will not believe your eyes. You will swear they're real. Please don't try to peel the pictures off the wall. ... Step right up ..."

This would not be too far removed from how painters like John Haberle (1856-1933) were trumpeted in their heyday. Indeed, for a decade or two after the Civil War, Haberle, who hailed from New Haven, was part of a unique trend in American painting: trompe l'oiel, or, literally, "to fool the eye." Much like the "faux-muralists" and "faux finishers" of today, these proto-photo-realists painted such accurate renderings — in size and dimension too — that the resultant images were thought to be 3-D. The paintings were coveted by unlikely art patrons: bachelors, businessmen and bar owners.

Writing about these painters, Robert Hughes mused, "People associated the trompe l'oeil painter with the trickster, the con man, the card sharp. 'How the hell did he do that?' To be fooled and know you are being fooled is a truly democratic joy."

The New Britain Museum of American Art will spread that democratic joy to modern audiences with its provocative exhibit, John Haberle: American Master of Illusion, on view from Dec. 11, 2009 to March 14, 2010. "Provocative" because it provokes some very basic questions: What is art? What is reality? Can we stop time, or at least slow it down long enough to catch our collective breaths?

Gertrude Grace Sill, longtime art professor at Fairfield University, curated the show with a goal to make the New Britain museum the "center for the art of John Haberle."

"We only offered the show to places that owned a Haberle work," she said, noting that the museum owns three Haberle paintings and now, thanks to Sill's own generosity, a drawing, some ephemera and all of her archives on the artist.

Besides Haberle, the best known of the trompe painters were William Harnett (1848-1892) and John Frederick Peto (1854-1907), both of Philadelphia. The subject matter of all three masters was the most mundane imaginable: flotsam from drawers, bulletin boards, ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, documents, U.S. currency. It was still life with hidden motives revolving around loss and nostalgia.

Though they were all wickedly good artists, Haberle's humor set him apart.

"His work was always witty and informed," says Sill. "He really put himself in there. He also liked to thumb his nose at the authorities."

Michael Theise, an artist who lives in Wallingford, shares Sill's enthusiasm, unabashedly confessing, "Haberle is one of my favorite painters. His paintings for the most part showed a true wit and a unique play on words. In the piece 'Can You Break a Five?,' the 5-dollar bill in the painting is torn apart, a play on the word 'break.' The painting also has the back of a 1-dollar bill, which at the time stated the counterfeit law. ... This was his way of stating he was well aware of the counterfeit laws. He had a run-in with the law sometime in his life and wanted to flaunt this."

Theise, one of the finest modern trompe l'oeil painters, had a recent exhibit of his own work at the NBMAA and is ecstatic that one of his heroes will be on view in a nearby gallery.

"Some of the paintings that hung on the walls of saloons were damaged by drunken patrons poking them with canes to see if they were real objects," said Theise, laughing. "They put holes in some famous paintings!"

Haberle lived his entire life in the New Haven area. His father was a tailor whose shop was on the green near the Taft Hotel. Haberle was born with a draftsman's gifts. Though the family didn't have the money to send him to school, he worked at his father's shop and mingled with Yale clientele. After apprenticing with a New Haven printer, Haberle quickly took to engraving and lithography. He saved his money and, in the late 1870s, attended the National Academy of Design in New York, where he saw William Harnett's work, which was highly collectible at the time.

"Haberle said 'Hey, I could do that'," says Sill. "And he sold his first trompe l'oiel painting to one of New York's biggest collectors, then sold a second one."

What followed was a decade of obsessive focus on this single trompe style, largely because Haberle's work was sought out by businessmen who wanted bragging rights on their colleagues.

"There was no TV or movies at the time," says Sill. "They would put the paintings on the walls of their office for amusement. It was a visual joke, all in good fun."

The eye strain, however, proved too much for Haberle, and he was forced to give up the style after a productive decade; the proof of his productivity now hangs on the walls of the New Britain Museum of American Art.

John Haberle: American Master of Illusion will feature 17 large works by Haberle and some ephemera that fleshes out his life and the period of time in which he painted. Of particular importance, says Sill, are two large paintings done toward the end of his trompe period, "Japanese Corner" and "Night." The latter was donated to the New Britain museum by Haberle's daughters.

John Haberle: American Master of Illusion, Dec. 11, 2009-March 14, 2010

New Britain Museum of American Art, 56 Lexington St., New Britain, (860) 229-0257, nbmaa.org

FREETIME WINTER 2009-2010 MUSIC Dancehall Dancehall Revolution: Street art from Jamaica ARTS The Joy of Being Fooled: The NBMAA gives props to New Haven painter John Haberle STAGE Liberation Through Improv: A play based on the quilt-makers of Gee's Bend, Alabama DINING It's Getting Bitter All The Time: Before you call it a "cocktail," better be sure it has bitters