"Apolinère Enameled" was painted circa 1916 by Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...

, as an advertisement for paint. The picture depicts a girl painting a bed-frame with white enamelled paint. The depiction of the frame deliberately includes conflicting perspective

Perspective (graphical)

Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...

 lines, to produce an impossible object

Impossible object

An impossible object is a type of optical illusion consisting of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and subconsciously interpreted by the visual system as representing a projection of a three-dimensional object although it is not actually possible for such an object to exist An impossible...

. To emphasise the deliberate impossibility of the shape, a piece of the frame is missing. The pieces is sometimes referred to as Duchamp's "impossible bed" painting.

External links

• Philadelphia Museum of Art